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Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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End Israel's War on the Palestinian People!
6,000 people marched this past Sunday in SF...
AMP, AROC and ANSWER initiate a protest
Saturday, July 26th, 1pm
NEW LOCATION: Justin Herman Plaza, Embarcadero BART Station, SF
Since Israel launched its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people almost two weeks ago, more than 500 people have been killed, the vast majority innocent civilians. Solidarity protests from all over the world have poured into the streets to demand an end to the massacre in Gaza. From South Africa to France, from Chile to Venezuela, the world is behind Palestine. Yesterday, in Chicago, more than 10,000 people demanded that the "US stop aid to Israel."
WE DEMAND:
Stop the massacre in Gaza!
End the blockade of Gaza!
Stop US Aid to the Apartheid State of Israel!
Free all Palestinian political prisoners!
End the collective punishment of Palestinians!
End colonial occupation of Palestine!
The SF Bay Areas says NO to Zionism!
Volunteers Needed
Visit the link or come to the volunteer table at 12pm on Saturday to sign up.
Posters and flyers are available to pick up at 2969 Mission St. (between 25th and 26th Sts.)
Israel receives $4 billion in “aid” from the United States each year. This money is being used to commit war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. We are demanding that all U.S aid to Israel be ended now! More than 200 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 1,500 have been wounded from Israeli bombs and missiles. This has to end!
Contact the ANSWER Coalition for more info, to volunteer or to endorse: answer@answersf.org, 415-821-6545Make a much needed donation to support the July 26th action
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Major Bay Area Kickoff Meeting
October 2014 Nationwide Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
Saturday, July 26, 2-5 p.m.
First Unitarian Church
685 14th Street (at Castro, right next to 980 Freeway)
Downtown Oakland
(wheelchair accessible)
Friends,
Just in the past few weeks we have witnessed:
**1000's of children being driven across the border by US devastation of their homelands and then finding themselves caught between Homeland Security rounds-ups and flag-waving racists
**The District Attorney in Santa Rosa California refusing to charge the cop who murdered 13-year old Andy Lopez
**2 videos that went viral showing cops brutally and unjustly beating Black women
All these and more outrages only serve to underscore more than ever the need for powerful outpourings of resistance in October– as envisioned in the Call for a Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation (www.stopmassinceration.net) that was adopted at the meeting convened in New York in April 2014.
Should YOU be at this meeting?
Yes! If you live directly under these threats, this violence, this repression and want to STOP IT!
Yes! Even If you don’t yourself live directly under it, but you know that it’s wrong and you want to STOP IT!
Let’s all come together, individuals and organizations and make real plans so this October, so our determination to end all this reverberates across the country and around the world!
October 2014 needs to be a full month of many diverse forms of resistance.
Already, prominent and respected voices are signing the Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Call for the Month of Resistance. Join Ayelet Waldman, novelist, lawyer ; Alice Walker, author; Peter Coyote, actor, author, director; Cornel West, author, educator, voice of conscience; Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party; Noam Chomsky, Professor (ret.), MIT*; Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson; Michelle Alexander, and 100’s of others who have pledged to be part of the Month of Resistance
Take the Pledge! Endorse the Call for October. Spread the Call far and wide!
Be at! Bring others! to the Kick-off Meeting
Stop Mass Incarceration Network, San Francisco Bay Area
Phone: 510-984-3648
stopmassincarcerationbayarea@gmail.com
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Aug. 2 National March on the White House
Stop the Massacre in Gaza!
Saturday, Aug. 2, 1:00pm
Gather at the White House
Washington, D.C.
Transportation is being organized from all over the country
Yesterday, Israeli Defense Forces deliberately targeted a group of children playing soccer on a Gaza beach, killing four from the same family and maiming the others—another war crime committed against the Palestinian people.
Join thousands of people in a National March on the White House on Saturday, August 2 at 1:00pm to condemn the Israeli massacre in Gaza.
We have been in the streets every day in cities around the country. What is needed now is a massive National March on Washington.
Israel receives $4 billion in “aid” from the United States each year. This money is being used to commit war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. We are demanding that all U.S aid to Israel be ended now!
More than 200 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 1,500 have been wounded from Israeli bombs and missiles. This has to end!
Join us to demand:
Stop the massacre in Gaza! End the blockade of Gaza!
End all U.S. aid to Israel!
End the colonial occupation!
Co-sponsors: ANSWER Coalition; American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); American Muslim Alliance (AMA); Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition - New York; Code Pink; Muslim Legal Fund of America; World Can't Wait; Partership for Civil Justice; MAS Immigrant Justice Center; UNAC - United National Antiwar Coalition; Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
#2DC4Gaza #LetGazaLive #FreePalestine #Protest4Palestine
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B.
ARTICLES IN FULL
(Unless
otherwise noted)
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1) Pro-Palestinian Protesters Rally Across France, Defying Ban on Demonstrations
3) Arizona: Mom of Boys Left in Car May Be Spared Charge
4) Rush to Deport Young Migrants Could Trample Asylum Claims
By JULIA PRESTON July 19, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/us/rush-to-deport-young-migrants-could-trample-asylum-claims-.html?ref=us
5) Complaints About Chokeholds Are Focus of Study
6) Striking South African Metalworkers Lower Wage Demand-Unions
7) Snowden Seeks to Develop Anti-Surveillance Technologies
8) America’s Test at the Border
9) Havens Are Few, if Not Far, for Palestinians in Gaza Strip
10) New York City to Pay $2.75 Million to Settle Suit in Death of Rikers Island Inmate
11) New York City Reviewing Rikers Assaults on 129 Inmates
12) In 9 Cases of Police Chokeholds, Punishment Was Rare, Review Board Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/nyregion/9-cases-of-police-chokeholds-punishment-was-rare-review-board-says.html?ref=nyregion
13) Medical Workers Face Scrutiny After Man’s Death in Police Custody
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/nyregion/medical-workers-face-scrutiny-after-mans-death-in-police-custody.html?ref=nyregion
14) Darkness Falls on Gaza
Gaza Under Israel’s Onslaught
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/opinion/gaza-under-israels-onslaught.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region
15) Prosecutors Are Reading Emails From Inmates to Lawyers
16) In a Grim Game of Numbers, Israel and Palestinians Vie for Advantage
17) Palestinian Family Finds Missing Son in YouTube Video of His Shooting
[The video in this article is very hard to look at. An unarmed young man is murdered in cold blood. This horror continues just in order to keep Palestinians out of Israel because it is a "Jewish State" that deems that Palestinians are second-class people not deserving of life. A separate Jewish State is insane, criminal. All human beings should have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are inalienable rights that belong to all! For a free, democratic and secular Palestine! ...bw]
18) U.S. Religious Leaders Embrace Cause of Immigrant Children
19) U.S. Military Suicides Rise Slightly
20) Eyes on Gaza, Tensions Flare in Brooklyn
21) What the Hobby Lobby Ruling Means for America
Tens of thousands march for Gaza in London, while clashes spark in Paris.
July 19, 2014
http://www.alternet.org/activism/pro-palestinian-protesters-rally-across-france-defying-ban-demonstrations?akid=12035.229473.50nm0B&rd=1&src=newsletter1012038&t=9
2) Both Sides Report Deadliest Day in Gaza
"Gaza Health Ministry officials said that at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were been killed and that about 2,600 were wounded during Israel’s 13-day air and ground offensive, according to Reuters. The director of Shifa Hospital said 17 children, 14 women and four older people were among the dead from Shejaiya. ...Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/world/middleeast/gaza-israel.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=lede-package&WT.nav=lede-package&_r=0
"Gaza Health Ministry officials said that at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were been killed and that about 2,600 were wounded during Israel’s 13-day air and ground offensive, according to Reuters. The director of Shifa Hospital said 17 children, 14 women and four older people were among the dead from Shejaiya. ...Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire."
By ANNE BARNARD and ISABEL KERSHNER
3) Arizona: Mom of Boys Left in Car May Be Spared Charge
By SHAILA DEWAN
By JULIA PRESTON July 19, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/us/rush-to-deport-young-migrants-could-trample-asylum-claims-.html?ref=us
5) Complaints About Chokeholds Are Focus of Study
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and NATE SCHWEBER
6) Striking South African Metalworkers Lower Wage Demand-Unions
By REUTERS
By REUTERS
8) America’s Test at the Border
By ANNE BARNARD
11) New York City Reviewing Rikers Assaults on 129 Inmates
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ and MICHAEL WINERIP
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/nyregion/9-cases-of-police-chokeholds-punishment-was-rare-review-board-says.html?ref=nyregion
13) Medical Workers Face Scrutiny After Man’s Death in Police Custody
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
14) Darkness Falls on Gaza
Gaza Under Israel’s Onslaught
By MOHAMMED OMER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/opinion/gaza-under-israels-onslaught.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region
15) Prosecutors Are Reading Emails From Inmates to Lawyers
By JODI RUDOREN
[The video in this article is very hard to look at. An unarmed young man is murdered in cold blood. This horror continues just in order to keep Palestinians out of Israel because it is a "Jewish State" that deems that Palestinians are second-class people not deserving of life. A separate Jewish State is insane, criminal. All human beings should have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are inalienable rights that belong to all! For a free, democratic and secular Palestine! ...bw]
Open Source
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/what-the-hobby-lobby-ruling-means-for-america.html?ref=business
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1) Pro-Palestinian Protesters Rally Across France, Defying Ban on Demonstrations
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2) Both Sides Report Deadliest Day in Gaza
"Gaza Health Ministry officials said that at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were been killed and that about 2,600 were wounded during Israel’s 13-day air and ground offensive, according to Reuters. The director of Shifa Hospital said 17 children, 14 women and four older people were among the dead from Shejaiya. ...Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire."
GAZA
CITY — After weeks of escalating conflict in Gaza, both sides reported
death tolls that made clear Sunday was the deadliest day so far in the
war. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 87 Palestinians had
died and the Israeli military said 13 soldiers were dead.
The fighting signaled that what had begun as a limited ground invasion by Israel that started Thursday night had moved into a more extensive and costlier phase for both sides.
Most of the Palestinians were killed in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City called Shejaiya. For the Palestinians, it was the deadliest episode since July 8, when Israel began its offensive, first from the air, which was intended to curb rocket fire against its cities and the danger of infiltration through tunnels running under the border from Gaza into Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that more than 300 people were injured in Shejaiya.The Palestinian government, which is led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Western-supported Palestinian Authority and by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, in a statement described the killing of Palestinians in Shejaiya as “a heinous massacre” and a war crime.
It was not immediately clear whether the growing death toll and increasing pressure on both sides would help or hinder international efforts to forge a cease-fire. Mr. Abbas was expected to meet on Sunday in Dohar, Qatar, with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and Qatari officials to discuss an Egyptian proposal for ending the fighting, according to Palestinian officials. Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, is also based in Qatar.
The Israeli military said it had agreed to a request from the International Committee of the Red Cross for a two-hour humanitarian cease-fire on Sunday — from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. — to allow an emergency crew in to evacuate the dead and wounded from Shejaiya and to allow other residents to leave, but some fighting appeared to have resumed even before the first hour was up.
Soon after 3.30 p.m., the Israeli military said it would hold its fire in Shejaiya for an additional hour, though it accused Hamas of continuing to shoot. A short while later, it said that acceding to a Red Cross request, it was extending the cease-fire until 5:30.
At 5 p.m., barrages of rockets were fired from Gaza toward the southern Israeli cities of Beersheba, Ashkelon and Netivot. Some were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system, and others landed harmlessly in open ground.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said ground forces had moved on Shejaiya overnight after area residents had been warned to leave for the past three days.
“The mission,” he said, “is targeting Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure, including significant rocket-launching capabilities and an extensive tunnel network designed to aid infiltration into Israel for attacks on soldiers and civilians. Other tunnels, he said, lead to concealed rocket launchers or weapons stores.
“They have made fortified positions of all the town,” Colonel Lerner added, describing a labyrinth of tunnels beneath houses, which he called “Lower Gaza.”
The military, he said, had found 10 access shafts leading to tunnels beneath Shejaiya, and 8 percent of the nearly 1,800 rockets fired into Israel since July 8 had been launched from Shejaiya.
Detecting and destroying the tunnel system has been a focus of the ground operation so far. Earlier Sunday the military said it had discovered 14 tunnels and dozens of access points. Armed militants from Gaza emerged from at least two tunnels dug under the border with Israel on Saturday, clashing with Israeli soldiers and killing two. On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said it had demolished two tunnels, including one it said led to Netiv Haasara, an Israeli border community just north of Gaza.
Gaza Health Ministry officials said that at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were been killed and that about 2,600 were wounded during Israel’s 13-day air and ground offensive, according to Reuters. The director of Shifa Hospital said 17 children, 14 women and four older people were among the dead from Shejaiya.
Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire.
At the edge of Shejaiya, dark smoke rose above buildings on Sunday and shelling cracked and thumped nearby with hardly a second’s pause between rounds. Shops were closed, and clusters of people periodically emerged from the narrower streets of the neighborhood and rushed up the hill toward downtown.
A chain of five children holding hands trotted uphill, dragged by an adult — the smallest boy, around 3, with an expression of confusion and terror. Barefoot, he clutched his flip-flops in his hand. A van drove by with five boys on its roof, the inside packed with people and mattresses. Taxis ventured only to the bottom of the street, where they picked up pedestrians, so many on occasion that some had to sit in an open hatchback or trunk.
Some people sat down as soon as they got out of immediate danger, after a block or so. Asked where she would go, one woman sitting on a stoop with a half-dozen children said, “God knows.”
At Shifa Hospital, a girl who looked about 9 was brought into the emergency room and laid on a gurney, blood soaking the shoulder of her shirt. Motionless and barely alive, she stared at the ceiling, her mouth open. There was no relative with her to give her name. The medical staff stood quietly around her. Every now and then, they checked her vital signs, until it was time. They covered her with a white sheet, and she was gone. A few moments later, a new patient lay on the gurney.
At one point in the dying girl’s final moments, a half-dozen journalists with television cameras crowded around the gurney. In the next bed, a small girl smudged with blood cried, “Mama! Mama!”
The hospital grounds were crowded with displaced families sitting on the grass. Some were sprinkled loosely in the sun, others packed side by side in the spots of shade.
Taghreed Harazin, 34, sat under a gazebo with her six-month-old son, Diaa, in the car seat in which she had carried him on foot until finding a taxi. She said she had believed the evacuation order was only for the eastern part of the neighborhood, and mistakenly thought she would be safe at home. Moving was frightening, she said, because of airstrikes.
But during the night, as the family prepared their predawn Ramadan meal — only bread, since there was no electricity to cook with — heavy shelling started. They went to the basement for three hours, then ventured out at dawn.
As the family dashed through the streets to avoid crashing shells, Ms. Harazin, said, she saw the decapitated body of a boy who looked about 4, and a wounded woman in a black abaya nearby, both lying on the sidewalk. An ambulance came and took them both away.
“We are not Hamas, and we are not with the others,” Ms. Harazin said. “We just want to live in our homes. The people are not Hamas. Israel has a problem with Hamas. What’s the fault of the other people? We have nothing to do with it.”
Asked what she thought of Hamas’s handling of the current war, she said, “Sometimes it’s difficult to express your opinion.”
She faulted Israel for shelling civilian homes, but said of Hamas’s actions, “If you say any word, it’s held against you.” She said her husband had been beaten for complaining about Hamas.
A lab technician, Ms. Harazin had brought a medical kit with her, along with her son’s diaper bag, in case anyone needed help. She had bandaged the foot of an elderly woman sitting next to her, who cut it on glass as she fled barefoot.
The woman, Wadha Abu Amr, said her family were refugees from what is now Beersheba. They fled from there in 1948 during the war over Israel’s founding.
“I’m afraid that this is another 1948,” she said, “God forbid. We were driven out in 1948 and we are being driven out again now.”
Anne Barnard reported from Gaza City and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Fares Akram and Tyler Hicks contributed reporting from Gaza City.
2) Both Sides Report Deadliest Day in Gaza
"Gaza Health Ministry officials said that at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were been killed and that about 2,600 were wounded during Israel’s 13-day air and ground offensive, according to Reuters. The director of Shifa Hospital said 17 children, 14 women and four older people were among the dead from Shejaiya. ...Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire."
By ANNE BARNARD and ISABEL KERSHNER
The fighting signaled that what had begun as a limited ground invasion by Israel that started Thursday night had moved into a more extensive and costlier phase for both sides.
Most of the Palestinians were killed in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City called Shejaiya. For the Palestinians, it was the deadliest episode since July 8, when Israel began its offensive, first from the air, which was intended to curb rocket fire against its cities and the danger of infiltration through tunnels running under the border from Gaza into Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that more than 300 people were injured in Shejaiya.The Palestinian government, which is led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Western-supported Palestinian Authority and by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, in a statement described the killing of Palestinians in Shejaiya as “a heinous massacre” and a war crime.
It was not immediately clear whether the growing death toll and increasing pressure on both sides would help or hinder international efforts to forge a cease-fire. Mr. Abbas was expected to meet on Sunday in Dohar, Qatar, with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and Qatari officials to discuss an Egyptian proposal for ending the fighting, according to Palestinian officials. Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, is also based in Qatar.
The Israeli military said it had agreed to a request from the International Committee of the Red Cross for a two-hour humanitarian cease-fire on Sunday — from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. — to allow an emergency crew in to evacuate the dead and wounded from Shejaiya and to allow other residents to leave, but some fighting appeared to have resumed even before the first hour was up.
Soon after 3.30 p.m., the Israeli military said it would hold its fire in Shejaiya for an additional hour, though it accused Hamas of continuing to shoot. A short while later, it said that acceding to a Red Cross request, it was extending the cease-fire until 5:30.
At 5 p.m., barrages of rockets were fired from Gaza toward the southern Israeli cities of Beersheba, Ashkelon and Netivot. Some were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system, and others landed harmlessly in open ground.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said ground forces had moved on Shejaiya overnight after area residents had been warned to leave for the past three days.
“The mission,” he said, “is targeting Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure, including significant rocket-launching capabilities and an extensive tunnel network designed to aid infiltration into Israel for attacks on soldiers and civilians. Other tunnels, he said, lead to concealed rocket launchers or weapons stores.
“They have made fortified positions of all the town,” Colonel Lerner added, describing a labyrinth of tunnels beneath houses, which he called “Lower Gaza.”
The military, he said, had found 10 access shafts leading to tunnels beneath Shejaiya, and 8 percent of the nearly 1,800 rockets fired into Israel since July 8 had been launched from Shejaiya.
Detecting and destroying the tunnel system has been a focus of the ground operation so far. Earlier Sunday the military said it had discovered 14 tunnels and dozens of access points. Armed militants from Gaza emerged from at least two tunnels dug under the border with Israel on Saturday, clashing with Israeli soldiers and killing two. On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said it had demolished two tunnels, including one it said led to Netiv Haasara, an Israeli border community just north of Gaza.
Gaza Health Ministry officials said that at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were been killed and that about 2,600 were wounded during Israel’s 13-day air and ground offensive, according to Reuters. The director of Shifa Hospital said 17 children, 14 women and four older people were among the dead from Shejaiya.
Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire.
At the edge of Shejaiya, dark smoke rose above buildings on Sunday and shelling cracked and thumped nearby with hardly a second’s pause between rounds. Shops were closed, and clusters of people periodically emerged from the narrower streets of the neighborhood and rushed up the hill toward downtown.
A chain of five children holding hands trotted uphill, dragged by an adult — the smallest boy, around 3, with an expression of confusion and terror. Barefoot, he clutched his flip-flops in his hand. A van drove by with five boys on its roof, the inside packed with people and mattresses. Taxis ventured only to the bottom of the street, where they picked up pedestrians, so many on occasion that some had to sit in an open hatchback or trunk.
Some people sat down as soon as they got out of immediate danger, after a block or so. Asked where she would go, one woman sitting on a stoop with a half-dozen children said, “God knows.”
At Shifa Hospital, a girl who looked about 9 was brought into the emergency room and laid on a gurney, blood soaking the shoulder of her shirt. Motionless and barely alive, she stared at the ceiling, her mouth open. There was no relative with her to give her name. The medical staff stood quietly around her. Every now and then, they checked her vital signs, until it was time. They covered her with a white sheet, and she was gone. A few moments later, a new patient lay on the gurney.
At one point in the dying girl’s final moments, a half-dozen journalists with television cameras crowded around the gurney. In the next bed, a small girl smudged with blood cried, “Mama! Mama!”
The hospital grounds were crowded with displaced families sitting on the grass. Some were sprinkled loosely in the sun, others packed side by side in the spots of shade.
Taghreed Harazin, 34, sat under a gazebo with her six-month-old son, Diaa, in the car seat in which she had carried him on foot until finding a taxi. She said she had believed the evacuation order was only for the eastern part of the neighborhood, and mistakenly thought she would be safe at home. Moving was frightening, she said, because of airstrikes.
But during the night, as the family prepared their predawn Ramadan meal — only bread, since there was no electricity to cook with — heavy shelling started. They went to the basement for three hours, then ventured out at dawn.
As the family dashed through the streets to avoid crashing shells, Ms. Harazin, said, she saw the decapitated body of a boy who looked about 4, and a wounded woman in a black abaya nearby, both lying on the sidewalk. An ambulance came and took them both away.
“We are not Hamas, and we are not with the others,” Ms. Harazin said. “We just want to live in our homes. The people are not Hamas. Israel has a problem with Hamas. What’s the fault of the other people? We have nothing to do with it.”
Asked what she thought of Hamas’s handling of the current war, she said, “Sometimes it’s difficult to express your opinion.”
She faulted Israel for shelling civilian homes, but said of Hamas’s actions, “If you say any word, it’s held against you.” She said her husband had been beaten for complaining about Hamas.
A lab technician, Ms. Harazin had brought a medical kit with her, along with her son’s diaper bag, in case anyone needed help. She had bandaged the foot of an elderly woman sitting next to her, who cut it on glass as she fled barefoot.
The woman, Wadha Abu Amr, said her family were refugees from what is now Beersheba. They fled from there in 1948 during the war over Israel’s founding.
“I’m afraid that this is another 1948,” she said, “God forbid. We were driven out in 1948 and we are being driven out again now.”
Anne Barnard reported from Gaza City and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Fares Akram and Tyler Hicks contributed reporting from Gaza City.
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3) Arizona: Mom of Boys Left in Car May Be Spared Charge
3) Arizona: Mom of Boys Left in Car May Be Spared Charge
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4) Rush to Deport Young Migrants Could Trample Asylum Claims
By JULIA PRESTON
4) Rush to Deport Young Migrants Could Trample Asylum Claims
By JULIA PRESTON
July 19, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/us/rush-to-deport-young-migrants-could-trample-asylum-claims-.html?ref=us
HARLINGEN, Tex. — The first time her aunt in Mexico took her out at night, the young teenager was told they were headed to a party.
It was no party. “It was trafficking people, drug dealers,” she recalled. “I just saw a lot of guys. They had guns. I was in shock. I was shaking. The more I was saying no, the more they treated me badly.”
It was the start of a dark ordeal for Andrea H., a Honduran then living in a Mexican border city. Her own relatives, associates of Mexican drug cartel bosses, forced her into prostitution. She was 13.
After two years she ran away, seeking safety in the United States. She tried twice, crossing the Rio Grande, scrambling over fences and hiding in cactus brush in black swarms of mosquitoes. Twice she was caught by the Border Patrol.But when agents questioned her, Andrea did not tell them why she had fled. Thinking back to those encounters in an interview last week, Andrea recalled the chill she had felt facing uniformed agents in bleak holding cells at a Border Patrol station within earshot of other migrants she did not know — perhaps with ties to the cartels.
“I was just trying to protect myself, and I was not saying anything to no one,” she said. Twice she agreed to leave voluntarily and was returned to Mexico.
In an unprecedented surge, more than 57,000 young migrants coming without their parents, most from Central America, have been apprehended at the southwest border since October. Administration officials and lawmakers in Congress want to stem the influx by speeding up reviews to determine whether they should be deported.
“We have to show that if you do not qualify for some form of humanitarian relief under our laws, you must be sent home,” Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, said at a Senate hearing this month.
But interviews over the last week with many young migrants like Andrea who made the journey to the border suggest the risks of accelerating initial screenings.
Minors questioned shortly after being caught in locations, like Border Patrol stations, where they may feel unsafe often do not disclose dangers at home or abuses suffered during their journey, lawyers who are counseling them say. They are disoriented, wary of strangers and sometimes traumatized, and they have little understanding of the legal process.
“Many children would be sent back to harm,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of Raices, a legal-services organization in San Antonio that has conducted in-depth screenings of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors in an emergency shelter at Lackland Air Force Base. “We would have their names here, and the morgue in Tegucigalpa will have the bodies down there,” he said, referring to the capital of Honduras.
Mr. Ryan and other advocates who have conducted deeper screenings of more than 3,000 Central American minors this year in shelters in Texas found that at least half could present viable claims for visas.
In the case of Andrea H., the full story of her abuse emerged long after her brief screenings by the Border Patrol. The agents who questioned her not only failed to discover that she was a victim of sex trafficking but also returned her to Mexico, missing the key fact that she is Honduran.
“I was just afraid of everything, after all those things those guys had been doing to my body,” she said, speaking by telephone to the offices in this border city of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, whose lawyers represented her in immigration court.
On a third attempt she succeeded in crossing illegally into Texas, eventually confiding in those lawyers and anti-trafficking investigators. Now 18 and living in Texas, Andrea asked that her full name not be published because she still fears some relatives. This year, she won a special immigration status for juveniles.
Debate in Washington has centered on a 2008 anti-trafficking law. Obama administration officials and some lawmakers from both parties are seeking to extend the fast-track screenings the law allows for unaccompanied youths from Mexico, using them for Central Americans as well.
Policy makers proposing to change the law say they want to strike a fair balance, creating tougher deterrents to reduce the illegal surge while preserving the country’s traditions of protecting people fleeing violence, especially children.
Bills were offered last week by two Texans, Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, and Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat; by two House Republicans, Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Jason Chaffetz of Utah; and by the senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans.
Under the current statute, minors from Mexico must be interviewed by border agents within 48 hours after they are apprehended. If a Mexican minor does not express fear of returning home, agents can obtain his or her consent to leave voluntarily. Since October, more than 12,600 unaccompanied Mexicans were apprehended along the southwest border, and most were swiftly returned.For minors from other countries, the law requires their transfer within 72 hours to detention shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Refugee officials work to find parents or other adults in this country who can care for them while they go through deportation proceedings. They receive basic guidance on their legal rights, and in some shelters volunteer lawyers interview them to assess their legal prospects.
Minors can be eligible for a special juvenile status if they have been abused or abandoned by family; for asylum if they face life-threatening persecution; and for visas as victims or witnesses of serious crimes or human trafficking.
Homeland Security officials said 87 percent of those cases opened in the last five years are unresolved. Last year, about 1,800 unaccompanied Central American minors were deported, the officials said.
Just over the border in Reynosa, Mexico, a clean and orderly shelter run by the Mexican child-welfare agency is filled with unaccompanied young migrants, including some from Central America who had been detained by the Mexican police before they reached the Rio Grande.
They were girls wearing low-cut tops and boys in black T-shirts with tattoos and buzz cuts. On a day when the shelter offered free telephone calls to their parents, many burst into tears.
“I feel sad because when you speak with your mother, you realize how far away she is and you can’t hug her,” said Alberto Rosales, 17, a Salvadoran with a spiky haircut and tears rolling down his face. His mother was at home in El Salvador.The youths told stories of hopeless poverty and criminal gang violence that they say drove them to leave, and family living in the United States who urged them to come. Most of them probably would not have qualified to stay in the United States if they had made it.
A few said they had faced direct threats. Mr. Rosales said he had left home after a street gang moved into his neighborhood and gave him a choice: Join, leave or die. His mother paid smugglers to guide him to join three brothers living in the United States, including one American citizen.
The children spoke almost casually of dangers they had seen on the road. A 14-year-old Salvadoran boy, José Jonás Ramírez, said he had been kidnapped from a bus station in Guatemala and held for three weeks while his captors pressed him to hand over the money he intended to pay smugglers. They released him after taking everything he had, including his shoes.
A 13-year-old Salvadoran girl said she and her sister had been taken off a bus by gunmen in a Mexican town and forced to kneel in a muddy field while gunmen pushed rifles into their backs. The girl, Laura Melissa Morales Orellana, said the men had debated whether to rape them but finally only robbed them. She said she had been abandoned by both parents when she was a baby. Her story might have qualified her for protection in the United States.
But the youths were not thinking about legal papers. José Ramírez said his mother had moved to the United States when he was 3.
“I just want to see my mother,” he said. “That is my dream.”
In Texas, one young man who made an illegal crossing unaccompanied remembered his first days in the United States.
Kevyn Merida, 22, said he had fled from his home in Guatemala after Mexican drug traffickers, seeking to expand into his country, tried to enlist him as a courier. Two close friends of his were murdered by traffickers. Mr. Merida was also fleeing severe abuse at home. He came in 2009, one of the first in the wave of unaccompanied minors.
Mr. Merida said he told nothing of his history to the Border Patrol officer who caught him less than an hour after he rafted across the Rio Grande.
“You can’t talk to them,” he said last week. “They are just trying to throw you back again.”
But after a week in a health department detention shelter in Harlingen, he said, he watched a presentation about his legal rights and later met a lawyer from Mr. Ryan’s organization. “I felt comfortable talking to them,” he said. “I changed my mind and decided to tell the truth.”
Mr. Merida went to immigration court and was granted a green card. He graduated from high school and is getting ready to join the Marines.
“It is a happiness I can’t describe in words,” he said.
Brent McDonald and Laura Tillman contributed reporting from Reynosa, Mexico.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/us/rush-to-deport-young-migrants-could-trample-asylum-claims-.html?ref=us
HARLINGEN, Tex. — The first time her aunt in Mexico took her out at night, the young teenager was told they were headed to a party.
It was no party. “It was trafficking people, drug dealers,” she recalled. “I just saw a lot of guys. They had guns. I was in shock. I was shaking. The more I was saying no, the more they treated me badly.”
It was the start of a dark ordeal for Andrea H., a Honduran then living in a Mexican border city. Her own relatives, associates of Mexican drug cartel bosses, forced her into prostitution. She was 13.
After two years she ran away, seeking safety in the United States. She tried twice, crossing the Rio Grande, scrambling over fences and hiding in cactus brush in black swarms of mosquitoes. Twice she was caught by the Border Patrol.But when agents questioned her, Andrea did not tell them why she had fled. Thinking back to those encounters in an interview last week, Andrea recalled the chill she had felt facing uniformed agents in bleak holding cells at a Border Patrol station within earshot of other migrants she did not know — perhaps with ties to the cartels.
“I was just trying to protect myself, and I was not saying anything to no one,” she said. Twice she agreed to leave voluntarily and was returned to Mexico.
In an unprecedented surge, more than 57,000 young migrants coming without their parents, most from Central America, have been apprehended at the southwest border since October. Administration officials and lawmakers in Congress want to stem the influx by speeding up reviews to determine whether they should be deported.
“We have to show that if you do not qualify for some form of humanitarian relief under our laws, you must be sent home,” Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, said at a Senate hearing this month.
But interviews over the last week with many young migrants like Andrea who made the journey to the border suggest the risks of accelerating initial screenings.
Minors questioned shortly after being caught in locations, like Border Patrol stations, where they may feel unsafe often do not disclose dangers at home or abuses suffered during their journey, lawyers who are counseling them say. They are disoriented, wary of strangers and sometimes traumatized, and they have little understanding of the legal process.
“Many children would be sent back to harm,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of Raices, a legal-services organization in San Antonio that has conducted in-depth screenings of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors in an emergency shelter at Lackland Air Force Base. “We would have their names here, and the morgue in Tegucigalpa will have the bodies down there,” he said, referring to the capital of Honduras.
Mr. Ryan and other advocates who have conducted deeper screenings of more than 3,000 Central American minors this year in shelters in Texas found that at least half could present viable claims for visas.
In the case of Andrea H., the full story of her abuse emerged long after her brief screenings by the Border Patrol. The agents who questioned her not only failed to discover that she was a victim of sex trafficking but also returned her to Mexico, missing the key fact that she is Honduran.
“I was just afraid of everything, after all those things those guys had been doing to my body,” she said, speaking by telephone to the offices in this border city of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, whose lawyers represented her in immigration court.
On a third attempt she succeeded in crossing illegally into Texas, eventually confiding in those lawyers and anti-trafficking investigators. Now 18 and living in Texas, Andrea asked that her full name not be published because she still fears some relatives. This year, she won a special immigration status for juveniles.
Debate in Washington has centered on a 2008 anti-trafficking law. Obama administration officials and some lawmakers from both parties are seeking to extend the fast-track screenings the law allows for unaccompanied youths from Mexico, using them for Central Americans as well.
Policy makers proposing to change the law say they want to strike a fair balance, creating tougher deterrents to reduce the illegal surge while preserving the country’s traditions of protecting people fleeing violence, especially children.
Bills were offered last week by two Texans, Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, and Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat; by two House Republicans, Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Jason Chaffetz of Utah; and by the senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans.
Under the current statute, minors from Mexico must be interviewed by border agents within 48 hours after they are apprehended. If a Mexican minor does not express fear of returning home, agents can obtain his or her consent to leave voluntarily. Since October, more than 12,600 unaccompanied Mexicans were apprehended along the southwest border, and most were swiftly returned.For minors from other countries, the law requires their transfer within 72 hours to detention shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Refugee officials work to find parents or other adults in this country who can care for them while they go through deportation proceedings. They receive basic guidance on their legal rights, and in some shelters volunteer lawyers interview them to assess their legal prospects.
Minors can be eligible for a special juvenile status if they have been abused or abandoned by family; for asylum if they face life-threatening persecution; and for visas as victims or witnesses of serious crimes or human trafficking.
Homeland Security officials said 87 percent of those cases opened in the last five years are unresolved. Last year, about 1,800 unaccompanied Central American minors were deported, the officials said.
Just over the border in Reynosa, Mexico, a clean and orderly shelter run by the Mexican child-welfare agency is filled with unaccompanied young migrants, including some from Central America who had been detained by the Mexican police before they reached the Rio Grande.
They were girls wearing low-cut tops and boys in black T-shirts with tattoos and buzz cuts. On a day when the shelter offered free telephone calls to their parents, many burst into tears.
“I feel sad because when you speak with your mother, you realize how far away she is and you can’t hug her,” said Alberto Rosales, 17, a Salvadoran with a spiky haircut and tears rolling down his face. His mother was at home in El Salvador.The youths told stories of hopeless poverty and criminal gang violence that they say drove them to leave, and family living in the United States who urged them to come. Most of them probably would not have qualified to stay in the United States if they had made it.
A few said they had faced direct threats. Mr. Rosales said he had left home after a street gang moved into his neighborhood and gave him a choice: Join, leave or die. His mother paid smugglers to guide him to join three brothers living in the United States, including one American citizen.
The children spoke almost casually of dangers they had seen on the road. A 14-year-old Salvadoran boy, José Jonás Ramírez, said he had been kidnapped from a bus station in Guatemala and held for three weeks while his captors pressed him to hand over the money he intended to pay smugglers. They released him after taking everything he had, including his shoes.
A 13-year-old Salvadoran girl said she and her sister had been taken off a bus by gunmen in a Mexican town and forced to kneel in a muddy field while gunmen pushed rifles into their backs. The girl, Laura Melissa Morales Orellana, said the men had debated whether to rape them but finally only robbed them. She said she had been abandoned by both parents when she was a baby. Her story might have qualified her for protection in the United States.
But the youths were not thinking about legal papers. José Ramírez said his mother had moved to the United States when he was 3.
“I just want to see my mother,” he said. “That is my dream.”
In Texas, one young man who made an illegal crossing unaccompanied remembered his first days in the United States.
Kevyn Merida, 22, said he had fled from his home in Guatemala after Mexican drug traffickers, seeking to expand into his country, tried to enlist him as a courier. Two close friends of his were murdered by traffickers. Mr. Merida was also fleeing severe abuse at home. He came in 2009, one of the first in the wave of unaccompanied minors.
Mr. Merida said he told nothing of his history to the Border Patrol officer who caught him less than an hour after he rafted across the Rio Grande.
“You can’t talk to them,” he said last week. “They are just trying to throw you back again.”
But after a week in a health department detention shelter in Harlingen, he said, he watched a presentation about his legal rights and later met a lawyer from Mr. Ryan’s organization. “I felt comfortable talking to them,” he said. “I changed my mind and decided to tell the truth.”
Mr. Merida went to immigration court and was granted a green card. He graduated from high school and is getting ready to join the Marines.
“It is a happiness I can’t describe in words,” he said.
Brent McDonald and Laura Tillman contributed reporting from Reynosa, Mexico.
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5) Complaints About Chokeholds Are Focus of Study
The city agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct is studying the more than 1,000 complaints it has received in recent years about police officers using chokeholds, the agency said on Saturday, two days after a man died following a police encounter in which the hold appeared to be used.
The study by the Civilian Complaint Review Board follows an announcement on Friday by Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who said a plainclothes officer on Staten Island appeared to have used a chokehold on Thursday in trying to arrest the man, Eric Garner.
The department’s patrol guide prohibits chokeholds, which it defines as including “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.” The encounter was filmed by a bystander and viewed widely on the Internet. The recording shows Mr. Garner, who had health problems including severe asthma, arguing with officers who had accused him of illegally selling cigarettes on a sidewalk on Staten Island.
Mr. Garner, 43, a father of six, was a former employee of the city parks department; his mother, Gwen Carr, is a train operator with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and a sister, Ellisha Flagg, is an M.T.A. bus driver.
In trying to subdue Mr. Garner, the recording shows, an officer threw an arm around his neck as the officer struggled to pull the much-bigger Mr. Garner to the ground. Later, the officer continued to hold Mr. Garner around the neck for several seconds as he tried to crawl forward and other officers sought to put handcuffs on him. Mr. Garner could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” over and over again.
Officials identified the officer on Saturday as Daniel Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran who was assigned to a plainclothes team of officers in the 120th Precinct, which covers the northern tip of Staten Island.
Officer Pantaleo was taken off the streets following the episode and given desk duty, but the Police Department formally asked for his gun and shield on Saturday, officially placing him on modified duty.
Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which is representing Officer Pantaleo, criticized the department for the restrictions, saying that the move “under these circumstances is a completely unwarranted, knee-jerk reaction for political reasons and nothing more.”
He added, “It is a decision by the department that effectively prejudges this case and denies the officer the very benefit of a doubt that has long been part of the social contract that allows police officers to face the risks of this difficult and complex job.”
Officer Pantaleo has not spoken publicly about the episode, which is being investigated by the Staten Island district attorney’s office and the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. On Saturday afternoon, there was no answer at the brick house where Officer Pantaleo lives.
It has not been determined whether the chokehold contributed to Mr. Garner’s death. The city’s medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy on Friday, but has not released any results.
“At this time, no determination has been made by the Medical Examiner’s office as to the cause and manner of death of Eric Garner,” a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, Julie Bolcer, said in a statement, adding that further studies were still pending.
But the recording of the encounter has raised new questions about police training and tactics more than 20 years after the Police Department banned chokeholds entirely from use.
In announcing the study, Richard Emery, the chairman of the complaint review board, said the agency was “in the unique position of being able to look at the chokehold complaints it has received to attempt to discern why officers continue to use this forbidden practice.”
The board said that it had received complaints about 1,022 instances, since 2009, in which the police were accused of using chokeholds, but that in only nine instances had the board discovered enough evidence to determine that a chokehold had been used. In hundreds of other cases, not enough evidence was available to make a determination, the board said, or the investigations stalled when the person making the complaint could not be found or refused to cooperate.
Officer Pantaleo has been sued for civil rights violations twice in federal court since 2013. A plaintiff in one case, Tommy Rice, 41, said several officers — his legal papers identify one as Officer Pantaleo — pulled him and several friends over for a broken taillight before strip-searching them on the side of the road. Mr. Rice said they were arrested on charges, later dismissed, of using a vehicle to purchase narcotics.
On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Garner’s relatives appeared at a packed rally at a Staten Island church.
“He didn’t die because he stopped breathing on his own, somebody took his breath away,” Ms. Flagg, his sister, said.
She was particularly troubled that the encounter began over accusations that Mr. Garner was illegally selling cigarettes. (In New York City, there is a thriving black market for cigarettes from states with lower tax rates).
“A cigarette, are you serious?” she said. The people in the church, along with around 100 more who gathered outside, marched a mile to the spot where Mr. Garner died. The crowd shouted, “No justice, no peace!”
Mr. Garner’s funeral will be held on Wednesday in Brooklyn.
Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
5) Complaints About Chokeholds Are Focus of Study
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and NATE SCHWEBER
The city agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct is studying the more than 1,000 complaints it has received in recent years about police officers using chokeholds, the agency said on Saturday, two days after a man died following a police encounter in which the hold appeared to be used.
The study by the Civilian Complaint Review Board follows an announcement on Friday by Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who said a plainclothes officer on Staten Island appeared to have used a chokehold on Thursday in trying to arrest the man, Eric Garner.
The department’s patrol guide prohibits chokeholds, which it defines as including “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.” The encounter was filmed by a bystander and viewed widely on the Internet. The recording shows Mr. Garner, who had health problems including severe asthma, arguing with officers who had accused him of illegally selling cigarettes on a sidewalk on Staten Island.
Mr. Garner, 43, a father of six, was a former employee of the city parks department; his mother, Gwen Carr, is a train operator with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and a sister, Ellisha Flagg, is an M.T.A. bus driver.
In trying to subdue Mr. Garner, the recording shows, an officer threw an arm around his neck as the officer struggled to pull the much-bigger Mr. Garner to the ground. Later, the officer continued to hold Mr. Garner around the neck for several seconds as he tried to crawl forward and other officers sought to put handcuffs on him. Mr. Garner could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” over and over again.
Officials identified the officer on Saturday as Daniel Pantaleo, an eight-year veteran who was assigned to a plainclothes team of officers in the 120th Precinct, which covers the northern tip of Staten Island.
Officer Pantaleo was taken off the streets following the episode and given desk duty, but the Police Department formally asked for his gun and shield on Saturday, officially placing him on modified duty.
Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which is representing Officer Pantaleo, criticized the department for the restrictions, saying that the move “under these circumstances is a completely unwarranted, knee-jerk reaction for political reasons and nothing more.”
He added, “It is a decision by the department that effectively prejudges this case and denies the officer the very benefit of a doubt that has long been part of the social contract that allows police officers to face the risks of this difficult and complex job.”
Officer Pantaleo has not spoken publicly about the episode, which is being investigated by the Staten Island district attorney’s office and the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. On Saturday afternoon, there was no answer at the brick house where Officer Pantaleo lives.
It has not been determined whether the chokehold contributed to Mr. Garner’s death. The city’s medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy on Friday, but has not released any results.
“At this time, no determination has been made by the Medical Examiner’s office as to the cause and manner of death of Eric Garner,” a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, Julie Bolcer, said in a statement, adding that further studies were still pending.
But the recording of the encounter has raised new questions about police training and tactics more than 20 years after the Police Department banned chokeholds entirely from use.
In announcing the study, Richard Emery, the chairman of the complaint review board, said the agency was “in the unique position of being able to look at the chokehold complaints it has received to attempt to discern why officers continue to use this forbidden practice.”
The board said that it had received complaints about 1,022 instances, since 2009, in which the police were accused of using chokeholds, but that in only nine instances had the board discovered enough evidence to determine that a chokehold had been used. In hundreds of other cases, not enough evidence was available to make a determination, the board said, or the investigations stalled when the person making the complaint could not be found or refused to cooperate.
Officer Pantaleo has been sued for civil rights violations twice in federal court since 2013. A plaintiff in one case, Tommy Rice, 41, said several officers — his legal papers identify one as Officer Pantaleo — pulled him and several friends over for a broken taillight before strip-searching them on the side of the road. Mr. Rice said they were arrested on charges, later dismissed, of using a vehicle to purchase narcotics.
On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Garner’s relatives appeared at a packed rally at a Staten Island church.
“He didn’t die because he stopped breathing on his own, somebody took his breath away,” Ms. Flagg, his sister, said.
She was particularly troubled that the encounter began over accusations that Mr. Garner was illegally selling cigarettes. (In New York City, there is a thriving black market for cigarettes from states with lower tax rates).
“A cigarette, are you serious?” she said. The people in the church, along with around 100 more who gathered outside, marched a mile to the spot where Mr. Garner died. The crowd shouted, “No justice, no peace!”
Mr. Garner’s funeral will be held on Wednesday in Brooklyn.
Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
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6) Striking South African Metalworkers Lower Wage Demand-Unions
JOHANNESBURG — Labour unions representing striking South African metalworkers have submitted a lower wage demand to employers, union representatives said on Sunday, to try to end the walkout battering Africa's most developed economy.
More than 200,000 metal and engineering workers downed tools at the start of the month demanding wage increases of between 12 to 15 percent and disrupting the supply of auto components and construction work at two crucial power stations.
The walkout, coming just weeks after the end of a crippling five-month strike in the platinum industry, is the latest blow to South Africa's ailing economy and has further unnerved investors impatient with waves of labour unrest.
Six striking unions have been meeting with employers this weekend in an effort to end the strike that has forced U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co and others to halt production at their South African plants.
The new proposal is for a three-year agreement with annual increases of 8 or 10 percent depending on pay grade, said Johan van Niekerk, a spokesman for the United Association of South Africa, a smaller union in the talks.
"We're very close to each other," van Niekerk said. "By Tuesday morning if we get a favourable response from employers, it could be the end of the strike."
Both van Niekerk and Marius Croucamp, a spokesman for the Solidarity union, which is participating in the talks because its workers have been locked out by the strike, said the main National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) had backed the proposal.
NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim confirmed there was "a proposal on the table" but he declined to give further details.
A spokeswoman for the main employer group was not immediately available for comment.
NUMSA AGREEMENT CRITICAL
The unions are due to canvass their own members about the proposal on Monday, although the demand is within a previously mandated range, van Niekerk said, with unions and employers due to meet again on Tuesday.
But any last-minute opposition from NUMSA would delay an end to the stoppage, as the dominant union in the strike.
South Africa's main manufacturing union, NUMSA previously rejected an offer from employers for an increase of 10 percent followed by 9.5 percent in 2015 and 9 percent a year later.
Jim said last week that NUMSA members - who tend to be lower skilled and lower paid than members of the largely white Solidarity - would not accept less than a 10 percent annual rise over three years, saying black workers were underpaid.
South Africa's government is concerned about the state of industrial relations, the finance minister said on Thursday.
The economy contracted in the first quarter of the year, dragged down by the five-month platinum strike that slashed output from the world's three largest producers.
The metalworkers strike is likely to keep second-quarter growth depressed, although the central bank governor, Gill Marcus, has said she did not expect a recession.
(Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
6) Striking South African Metalworkers Lower Wage Demand-Unions
By REUTERS
JOHANNESBURG — Labour unions representing striking South African metalworkers have submitted a lower wage demand to employers, union representatives said on Sunday, to try to end the walkout battering Africa's most developed economy.
More than 200,000 metal and engineering workers downed tools at the start of the month demanding wage increases of between 12 to 15 percent and disrupting the supply of auto components and construction work at two crucial power stations.
The walkout, coming just weeks after the end of a crippling five-month strike in the platinum industry, is the latest blow to South Africa's ailing economy and has further unnerved investors impatient with waves of labour unrest.
Six striking unions have been meeting with employers this weekend in an effort to end the strike that has forced U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co and others to halt production at their South African plants.
The new proposal is for a three-year agreement with annual increases of 8 or 10 percent depending on pay grade, said Johan van Niekerk, a spokesman for the United Association of South Africa, a smaller union in the talks.
"We're very close to each other," van Niekerk said. "By Tuesday morning if we get a favourable response from employers, it could be the end of the strike."
Both van Niekerk and Marius Croucamp, a spokesman for the Solidarity union, which is participating in the talks because its workers have been locked out by the strike, said the main National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) had backed the proposal.
NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim confirmed there was "a proposal on the table" but he declined to give further details.
A spokeswoman for the main employer group was not immediately available for comment.
NUMSA AGREEMENT CRITICAL
The unions are due to canvass their own members about the proposal on Monday, although the demand is within a previously mandated range, van Niekerk said, with unions and employers due to meet again on Tuesday.
But any last-minute opposition from NUMSA would delay an end to the stoppage, as the dominant union in the strike.
South Africa's main manufacturing union, NUMSA previously rejected an offer from employers for an increase of 10 percent followed by 9.5 percent in 2015 and 9 percent a year later.
Jim said last week that NUMSA members - who tend to be lower skilled and lower paid than members of the largely white Solidarity - would not accept less than a 10 percent annual rise over three years, saying black workers were underpaid.
South Africa's government is concerned about the state of industrial relations, the finance minister said on Thursday.
The economy contracted in the first quarter of the year, dragged down by the five-month platinum strike that slashed output from the world's three largest producers.
The metalworkers strike is likely to keep second-quarter growth depressed, although the central bank governor, Gill Marcus, has said she did not expect a recession.
(Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
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7) Snowden Seeks to Develop Anti-Surveillance Technologies
NEW YORK — Edward Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of major U.S. surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe.
Snowden, who addressed conference attendees on Saturday via video link from Moscow, said he intends to devote much of his time to promoting such technologies, including ones that allow people to communicate anonymously and encrypt their messages.
"You in this room, right now have both the means and the
capability to improve the future by encoding our rights into
programs and protocols by which we rely every day," he told the New York City conference, known as Hackers On Planet Earth, or HOPE.
"That is what a lot of my future work is going to be
involved in," he told hundreds of hackers who crowded into an
auditorium and overflow rooms to hear him speak from Moscow, where he fled to last year.
He escaped the United States after leaking documents that detailed massive U.S. surveillance programs at home and abroad - revelations that outraged some Americans and sparked protests from countries around the globe.
Snowden did not discuss the status of a request he made earlier this month to extend his Russian visa, which expires at the end of July. The United States wants Russia to send him home to face criminal charges, including espionage.
At the HOPE hacking conference, several talks detailed approaches for thwarting government surveillance, including a system known as SecureDrop that is designed to allow people to anonymously leak documents to journalists.
Attorneys with the Electronic Frontier Foundation answered questions about pending litigation with the NSA, including efforts to stop collection of phone records that were disclosed through Snowden's leaks.
Snowden is seen as a hero by a large segment of the community of hackers attending the HOPE conference, which includes computer experts, anti-surveillance activists, artists and other types of hackers.
The conference featured about 100 presentations on topics ranging from surveillance to hacking elevators and home routers.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
7) Snowden Seeks to Develop Anti-Surveillance Technologies
By REUTERS
NEW YORK — Edward Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of major U.S. surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe.
Snowden, who addressed conference attendees on Saturday via video link from Moscow, said he intends to devote much of his time to promoting such technologies, including ones that allow people to communicate anonymously and encrypt their messages.
"You in this room, right now have both the means and the
capability to improve the future by encoding our rights into
programs and protocols by which we rely every day," he told the New York City conference, known as Hackers On Planet Earth, or HOPE.
"That is what a lot of my future work is going to be
involved in," he told hundreds of hackers who crowded into an
auditorium and overflow rooms to hear him speak from Moscow, where he fled to last year.
He escaped the United States after leaking documents that detailed massive U.S. surveillance programs at home and abroad - revelations that outraged some Americans and sparked protests from countries around the globe.
Snowden did not discuss the status of a request he made earlier this month to extend his Russian visa, which expires at the end of July. The United States wants Russia to send him home to face criminal charges, including espionage.
At the HOPE hacking conference, several talks detailed approaches for thwarting government surveillance, including a system known as SecureDrop that is designed to allow people to anonymously leak documents to journalists.
Attorneys with the Electronic Frontier Foundation answered questions about pending litigation with the NSA, including efforts to stop collection of phone records that were disclosed through Snowden's leaks.
Snowden is seen as a hero by a large segment of the community of hackers attending the HOPE conference, which includes computer experts, anti-surveillance activists, artists and other types of hackers.
The conference featured about 100 presentations on topics ranging from surveillance to hacking elevators and home routers.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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8) America’s Test at the Border
The
crisis of young migrants at the Texas border is a test of American
values, one of those surprise exams that history now and then throws our
way: Here are 57,000 helpless children. We are a nation of 300 million.
Do we spit on them, or give them blankets and beds?
It is a test that many are flunking. In Arizona, no surprise, people are losing their minds. Hearing that migrant children were being sent to the town of Oracle, a county sheriff instigated a protest that ensnared a busload of bewildered YMCA campers. A disbarred former county attorney running for governor has an ad showing a Mexican flag swallowing up a map of Arizona and the slogan “Before It’s Too Late.”
The fever is hot in other states, too: graffiti denouncing “illeagles” in Maryland. A mayor whipping up a bus blockade in Murrieta, Calif. The call going out on YouTube for militias to get their weapons and boots, and man up to keep the little ones on their side of the river.
In Congress, which gave up on creating an orderly immigration system, Republicans are watching President Obama struggle to get a handle on the problem, and trying very hard not to help. Their reaction is one part panic, two parts glee. Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia is warning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about migrants carrying the Ebola virus. For Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, it’s H1N1 flu virus. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is using the crisis to demand an end to President Obama’s program deferring deportations of young people known as Dreamers. There is no time like a crisis to blow up earlier efforts to fix the system’s failures.
As the crisis emboldens demagogues in Washington, Mr. Obama has the obligation to act the grown-up. But he can be a tepid ally where unauthorized immigrants are concerned, since he sees the issue through a calculating lens that overlooks the moral urgency to act. As Republicans issue absurd calls to send in the National Guard to seal the border, it’s worth remembering that the Obama administration already did that — years before the child-migrant crisis erupted.
This volatile situation demands courage and calm. Mr. Obama has the calm, but does he have the courage? Can he send a clear message like the one given by Maryland’s governor, Martin O’Malley, who told fellow governors: “It is contrary to everything we stand for as a people to try to summarily send children back to death.” Mayor Stephanie Miner of Syracuse wrote to Mr. Obama offering shelter in her city for the children. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, are pushing back at Republican efforts to speed the children’s deportations. Clergy members in Texas and other states are teaming up to welcome and shelter the migrants.
With Republicans in a frenzy, public support for immigrants is being tested. Leadership is needed.
The president, who has sought $3.7 billion from Congress, including humanitarian and legal aid for the migrant children, has the better argument. He has every right to defend his policies on moral as well as practical grounds, to confront the Tea Party’s fear and loathing with a call to treat traumatized children as refugees and protect them from harm.
It would be good to see Mr. Obama join other Democrats and Republicans in making the moral and legal case for compassionate action, to lead a backlash against the nativist backlash.
And while he’s at it, he can reaffirm his commitment to protecting, through executive action this year, millions of immigrants who have been here for years, who deserve the chance to legalize that Congress has refused them. He made this vow before the border crisis exploded; we could all benefit from hearing him repeat it.
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9) Havens Are Few, if Not Far, for Palestinians in Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY — As civilian casualties mounted on Monday in the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military reminded the world that it had warned people living in targeted areas to leave. The response from Palestinians here was unanimous: Where should we go?
United Nations shelters are already brimming, and some Palestinians fear they are not safe; one shelter was bombed by Israel in a previous conflict. Many Gaza residents have sought refuge with relatives, but with large extended families commonly consisting of dozens of relatives, many homes in the shrinking areas considered safe are already packed.
Perhaps most important, the vast majority of Gazans cannot leave Gaza. They live under restrictions that make this narrow coastal strip, which the United Nations considers occupied by Israel, unlike anywhere else.Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain in 2010 called Gaza “an open-air prison,” drawing criticism from Israel. But in reality, the vast majority of Gazans are effectively trapped, unable to seek refugee status across an international border. (Most are already refugees, those who fled from what is now Israel and their descendants.)
A 25-mile-long rectangle just a few miles wide, and one of the most densely populated places in the world, Gaza is surrounded by concrete walls and fences along its northern and eastern boundaries with Israel and its southern border with Egypt.
Even in what pass for ordinary times here, Israel permits very few Gazans to enter its territory, citing security concerns because suicide bombers and other militants from Gaza have killed Israeli civilians. The restrictions over the years have cost Palestinians jobs, scholarships and travel.
Egypt has also severely curtailed Gazans’ ability to travel, opening its border crossing with the territory for only 17 days this year. During the current fighting between Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza, only those with Egyptian or foreign passports or special permission were allowed to exit.
Even the Mediterranean Sea to the west provides no escape. Israel restricts boats from Gaza to three nautical miles offshore. And Gaza, its airspace controlled by Israel, has no airport.
So while three million Syrians have fled their country during the war there, more and more of Gaza’s 1.7 million people have been moving away from the edges of the strip and crowding into the already-packed center of Gaza City.
The Attar family, from northern Gaza, was crammed into a United Nations school classroom on Sunday, 27 relatives in all, their clothing hung on hooks for children’s book bags. They had moved first to a relative’s house, where 34 people shared two rooms, then tried to rent an apartment, but could find none free, and they longed for a truce so they could go home. Even here in downtown Gaza, there had been several deadly strikes during the day, including one that killed four children.
“The problem,” said Maissa al-Attar, 21, “is that when we are fleeing from the shelling, we still find the shelling around us.”
On Sunday, families were fleeing artillery barrages on foot, or being killed in their homes, as the Israelis pushed into the city’s Shejaiya neighborhood in an operation the military says aims to locate and destroy tunnels used by Hamas militants to enter Israel and carry out attacks.
The chaos has made some outside observers ask why people did not leave earlier, before the ground offensive neared them. The Israeli military has said it has given Gazans every opportunity to avoid injury by calling on them to evacuate neighborhoods it is about to target. Leaflets were dropped in Shejaiya on Saturday, residents said, and a senior military official said warnings had begun days earlier.
“Staying at home when you’re 100 percent sure there’s going to be fighting there is much worse,” the official said. “Be out for two or three days; it’s better than being in the battlefield.”
Still, many fled only when shells began flying. Israeli officials speculate that Hamas militants have threatened people with retaliation if they leave, using them as human shields. Gazans did not mention such threats as a factor — though some said that they did not feel free to criticize Hamas.
Such fears did not seem to deter 81,000 people who have already fled to United Nations shelters, and tens of thousands more who have gone to relatives’ homes. But Hamas may have misled people into a false sense of safety. It proclaimed on radio and television that the Israeli warnings were part of a psychological operation, and urged people to ignore them. Some were surprised at how far west into the areas that received warnings the Israelis pushed on Sunday, having reasoned that only the eastern areas, closer to the border, would be seriously threatened.
Another factor is that Gaza’s extended families can include dozens of people — half of all residents of Gaza are children — and moving is not as simple as packing a bag and running. Families are deeply rooted in their neighborhoods, and many lack potential hosts elsewhere.
The Attars thought of selling their farmland near the Israeli border, to move somewhere safer, but they could not afford apartments in Gaza City, where the scarcity of land, especially near the sea, drives prices high.
Also, the family depends on the land, growing vegetables and raising poultry for food and to make a living. And, Ms. Attar said, “It’s not just a house to sell and buy another; it’s our life and our grandparents’ life.”
Under fire in Shejaiya, some residents said they simply did not want to heed the orders of a foreign government they consider an occupier, and preferred to stay in their homes. One man on Sunday, having escorted his family out from under shelling, declared, “I’m going back, I’m not afraid,” and began marching back into the smoking neighborhood. Only after his sister ran after him, pleading, did he reconsider.
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza City, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.
8) America’s Test at the Border
It is a test that many are flunking. In Arizona, no surprise, people are losing their minds. Hearing that migrant children were being sent to the town of Oracle, a county sheriff instigated a protest that ensnared a busload of bewildered YMCA campers. A disbarred former county attorney running for governor has an ad showing a Mexican flag swallowing up a map of Arizona and the slogan “Before It’s Too Late.”
The fever is hot in other states, too: graffiti denouncing “illeagles” in Maryland. A mayor whipping up a bus blockade in Murrieta, Calif. The call going out on YouTube for militias to get their weapons and boots, and man up to keep the little ones on their side of the river.
In Congress, which gave up on creating an orderly immigration system, Republicans are watching President Obama struggle to get a handle on the problem, and trying very hard not to help. Their reaction is one part panic, two parts glee. Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia is warning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about migrants carrying the Ebola virus. For Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, it’s H1N1 flu virus. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is using the crisis to demand an end to President Obama’s program deferring deportations of young people known as Dreamers. There is no time like a crisis to blow up earlier efforts to fix the system’s failures.
As the crisis emboldens demagogues in Washington, Mr. Obama has the obligation to act the grown-up. But he can be a tepid ally where unauthorized immigrants are concerned, since he sees the issue through a calculating lens that overlooks the moral urgency to act. As Republicans issue absurd calls to send in the National Guard to seal the border, it’s worth remembering that the Obama administration already did that — years before the child-migrant crisis erupted.
This volatile situation demands courage and calm. Mr. Obama has the calm, but does he have the courage? Can he send a clear message like the one given by Maryland’s governor, Martin O’Malley, who told fellow governors: “It is contrary to everything we stand for as a people to try to summarily send children back to death.” Mayor Stephanie Miner of Syracuse wrote to Mr. Obama offering shelter in her city for the children. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, are pushing back at Republican efforts to speed the children’s deportations. Clergy members in Texas and other states are teaming up to welcome and shelter the migrants.
With Republicans in a frenzy, public support for immigrants is being tested. Leadership is needed.
The president, who has sought $3.7 billion from Congress, including humanitarian and legal aid for the migrant children, has the better argument. He has every right to defend his policies on moral as well as practical grounds, to confront the Tea Party’s fear and loathing with a call to treat traumatized children as refugees and protect them from harm.
It would be good to see Mr. Obama join other Democrats and Republicans in making the moral and legal case for compassionate action, to lead a backlash against the nativist backlash.
And while he’s at it, he can reaffirm his commitment to protecting, through executive action this year, millions of immigrants who have been here for years, who deserve the chance to legalize that Congress has refused them. He made this vow before the border crisis exploded; we could all benefit from hearing him repeat it.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Havens Are Few, if Not Far, for Palestinians in Gaza Strip
By ANNE BARNARD
GAZA CITY — As civilian casualties mounted on Monday in the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military reminded the world that it had warned people living in targeted areas to leave. The response from Palestinians here was unanimous: Where should we go?
United Nations shelters are already brimming, and some Palestinians fear they are not safe; one shelter was bombed by Israel in a previous conflict. Many Gaza residents have sought refuge with relatives, but with large extended families commonly consisting of dozens of relatives, many homes in the shrinking areas considered safe are already packed.
Perhaps most important, the vast majority of Gazans cannot leave Gaza. They live under restrictions that make this narrow coastal strip, which the United Nations considers occupied by Israel, unlike anywhere else.Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain in 2010 called Gaza “an open-air prison,” drawing criticism from Israel. But in reality, the vast majority of Gazans are effectively trapped, unable to seek refugee status across an international border. (Most are already refugees, those who fled from what is now Israel and their descendants.)
A 25-mile-long rectangle just a few miles wide, and one of the most densely populated places in the world, Gaza is surrounded by concrete walls and fences along its northern and eastern boundaries with Israel and its southern border with Egypt.
Even in what pass for ordinary times here, Israel permits very few Gazans to enter its territory, citing security concerns because suicide bombers and other militants from Gaza have killed Israeli civilians. The restrictions over the years have cost Palestinians jobs, scholarships and travel.
Egypt has also severely curtailed Gazans’ ability to travel, opening its border crossing with the territory for only 17 days this year. During the current fighting between Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza, only those with Egyptian or foreign passports or special permission were allowed to exit.
Even the Mediterranean Sea to the west provides no escape. Israel restricts boats from Gaza to three nautical miles offshore. And Gaza, its airspace controlled by Israel, has no airport.
So while three million Syrians have fled their country during the war there, more and more of Gaza’s 1.7 million people have been moving away from the edges of the strip and crowding into the already-packed center of Gaza City.
The Attar family, from northern Gaza, was crammed into a United Nations school classroom on Sunday, 27 relatives in all, their clothing hung on hooks for children’s book bags. They had moved first to a relative’s house, where 34 people shared two rooms, then tried to rent an apartment, but could find none free, and they longed for a truce so they could go home. Even here in downtown Gaza, there had been several deadly strikes during the day, including one that killed four children.
“The problem,” said Maissa al-Attar, 21, “is that when we are fleeing from the shelling, we still find the shelling around us.”
On Sunday, families were fleeing artillery barrages on foot, or being killed in their homes, as the Israelis pushed into the city’s Shejaiya neighborhood in an operation the military says aims to locate and destroy tunnels used by Hamas militants to enter Israel and carry out attacks.
The chaos has made some outside observers ask why people did not leave earlier, before the ground offensive neared them. The Israeli military has said it has given Gazans every opportunity to avoid injury by calling on them to evacuate neighborhoods it is about to target. Leaflets were dropped in Shejaiya on Saturday, residents said, and a senior military official said warnings had begun days earlier.
“Staying at home when you’re 100 percent sure there’s going to be fighting there is much worse,” the official said. “Be out for two or three days; it’s better than being in the battlefield.”
Still, many fled only when shells began flying. Israeli officials speculate that Hamas militants have threatened people with retaliation if they leave, using them as human shields. Gazans did not mention such threats as a factor — though some said that they did not feel free to criticize Hamas.
Such fears did not seem to deter 81,000 people who have already fled to United Nations shelters, and tens of thousands more who have gone to relatives’ homes. But Hamas may have misled people into a false sense of safety. It proclaimed on radio and television that the Israeli warnings were part of a psychological operation, and urged people to ignore them. Some were surprised at how far west into the areas that received warnings the Israelis pushed on Sunday, having reasoned that only the eastern areas, closer to the border, would be seriously threatened.
Another factor is that Gaza’s extended families can include dozens of people — half of all residents of Gaza are children — and moving is not as simple as packing a bag and running. Families are deeply rooted in their neighborhoods, and many lack potential hosts elsewhere.
The Attars thought of selling their farmland near the Israeli border, to move somewhere safer, but they could not afford apartments in Gaza City, where the scarcity of land, especially near the sea, drives prices high.
Also, the family depends on the land, growing vegetables and raising poultry for food and to make a living. And, Ms. Attar said, “It’s not just a house to sell and buy another; it’s our life and our grandparents’ life.”
Under fire in Shejaiya, some residents said they simply did not want to heed the orders of a foreign government they consider an occupier, and preferred to stay in their homes. One man on Sunday, having escorted his family out from under shelling, declared, “I’m going back, I’m not afraid,” and began marching back into the smoking neighborhood. Only after his sister ran after him, pleading, did he reconsider.
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza City, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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10) New York City to Pay $2.75 Million to Settle Suit in Death of Rikers Island Inmate
New York City has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from the December 2012 death of a prisoner at Rikers Island after he suffered what the city medical examiner’s office concluded was “blunt force trauma” to the head.
The inmate, Ronald Spear, 52, had kidney problems and walked with a cane, according to the lawsuit. The medical examiner’s office ruled that the manner of death was homicide.
The settlement is one of the largest paid by the city in recent years to resolve a lawsuit alleging violence against an inmate. Two years ago, the city agreed to pay $2 million to settle a case stemming from the 2008 fatal assault on Christopher Robinson, an 18-year-old inmate who was said to have been beaten by other prisoners who were enlisted by correction officers to help control his unit.The settlement also comes at a time of heightened focus on violence in city jails, including a recent New York Times report that documented 129 cases of inmates who were seriously injured over the course of 11 months in 2013 after violent encounters with correction officers. A copy of the settlement agreement was obtained by The Times.
Mr. Spear was being held at the North Infirmary Command, where he was “struggling to get medical care for a serious and chronic kidney disease,” the lawsuit said. “Part of what makes the underlying facts so disturbing was Mr. Spear’s obvious vulnerability at the time of the assault and killing,” it added.
Jonathan S. Chasan, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, which helped represent the family, said the case was “yet another example of the persistent problem of excessive force in the New York City jails, a problem that has not been adequately addressed or remediated.”
Citing sworn statements by other inmate witnesses, the lawsuit alleged that Mr. Spear had been kicked in the face and chest by one correction officer while being pinned down by two other officers.
Jonathan S. Abady, a lawyer whose firm, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, also represented the family, said, “No amount of money adequately compensates for the loss of a life.” But, he added, the settlement “seems to reflect a recognition on the part of the city that something terribly wrong happened here, whether or not that’s explicitly admitted.”
Eldin L. Villafañe, deputy commissioner of public information for the city’s Department of Correction, said that one officer had been fired, and others were facing disciplinary charges. Citing legal restrictions, he said he could not offer further details about the disciplinary investigations.
The city does not admit fault in the settlement document, which is expected to be filed on Monday before Judge P. Kevin Castel of Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Muriel Goode-Trufant, a senior city lawyer, said in a statement: “This was a tragic incident. It is hoped that this resolution brings some small measure of closure for the family.”
Mr. Spear was arrested in September 2012 and while in jail, he required regular dialysis treatment for kidney disease, the lawsuit said, adding that he often complained to correction officers about his medications and dialysis.
In early December 2012, he filed his own lawsuit, without the help of a lawyer, claiming that while in jail he had been denied medication, which had caused him “severe physical pain.”
In the lawsuit, he also said that he had contacted the Legal Aid Society, and as a result, “I have correction officers retaliating against me.” He died about two weeks later.
“It appears that correction officers had grown impatient with Mr. Spear’s persistent requests for medical treatment, and that they punished him by beating him to death,” his lawyers wrote last year in a letter to the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, asking that it open an investigation into Mr. Spear’s death.
The lawyers complained in their letter that the Bronx district attorney’s office, which had been investigating the case, was moving too slowly.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, said, “The Bronx D.A.'s office did a full investigation of the case, and determined it couldn’t prove criminal responsibility on the officers’ behalf beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Mr. Abady, the family’s lawyer, said on Friday that he had learned that Mr. Bharara’s office was now conducting a civil rights investigation into Mr. Spear’s death. A spokesman for Mr. Bharara declined to comment.
Two inmates who provided sworn statements to the family’s lawyers said Mr. Spear had raised frequent complaints about his care. The witnesses — Jesse James and Shawn Fraser — said that on the morning of Dec. 19, 2012, Mr. Spear asked to see a captain after getting into a disagreement with an officer about his treatment.
The officer grabbed Mr. Spear’s arm and hit him three or four times, knocking him down, the inmates said. They added that as he lay on the floor, two other officers held him, while the first officer kicked him repeatedly in the face and chest.
A third inmate who also provided a statement, Julius Newton, said that he looked into the hallway and saw an officer “kicking Ronald, who was lying on the ground” and not moving.
Mr. Spear’s sister, Nellie Kelly, said in a phone interview that the settlement was unlikely to change “the way that the officers behave, the way the city allows them to behave.”
It would have “no major impact on anything,” she added.
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10) New York City to Pay $2.75 Million to Settle Suit in Death of Rikers Island Inmate
New York City has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from the December 2012 death of a prisoner at Rikers Island after he suffered what the city medical examiner’s office concluded was “blunt force trauma” to the head.
The inmate, Ronald Spear, 52, had kidney problems and walked with a cane, according to the lawsuit. The medical examiner’s office ruled that the manner of death was homicide.
The settlement is one of the largest paid by the city in recent years to resolve a lawsuit alleging violence against an inmate. Two years ago, the city agreed to pay $2 million to settle a case stemming from the 2008 fatal assault on Christopher Robinson, an 18-year-old inmate who was said to have been beaten by other prisoners who were enlisted by correction officers to help control his unit.The settlement also comes at a time of heightened focus on violence in city jails, including a recent New York Times report that documented 129 cases of inmates who were seriously injured over the course of 11 months in 2013 after violent encounters with correction officers. A copy of the settlement agreement was obtained by The Times.
Mr. Spear was being held at the North Infirmary Command, where he was “struggling to get medical care for a serious and chronic kidney disease,” the lawsuit said. “Part of what makes the underlying facts so disturbing was Mr. Spear’s obvious vulnerability at the time of the assault and killing,” it added.
Jonathan S. Chasan, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, which helped represent the family, said the case was “yet another example of the persistent problem of excessive force in the New York City jails, a problem that has not been adequately addressed or remediated.”
Citing sworn statements by other inmate witnesses, the lawsuit alleged that Mr. Spear had been kicked in the face and chest by one correction officer while being pinned down by two other officers.
Jonathan S. Abady, a lawyer whose firm, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, also represented the family, said, “No amount of money adequately compensates for the loss of a life.” But, he added, the settlement “seems to reflect a recognition on the part of the city that something terribly wrong happened here, whether or not that’s explicitly admitted.”
Eldin L. Villafañe, deputy commissioner of public information for the city’s Department of Correction, said that one officer had been fired, and others were facing disciplinary charges. Citing legal restrictions, he said he could not offer further details about the disciplinary investigations.
The city does not admit fault in the settlement document, which is expected to be filed on Monday before Judge P. Kevin Castel of Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Muriel Goode-Trufant, a senior city lawyer, said in a statement: “This was a tragic incident. It is hoped that this resolution brings some small measure of closure for the family.”
Mr. Spear was arrested in September 2012 and while in jail, he required regular dialysis treatment for kidney disease, the lawsuit said, adding that he often complained to correction officers about his medications and dialysis.
In early December 2012, he filed his own lawsuit, without the help of a lawyer, claiming that while in jail he had been denied medication, which had caused him “severe physical pain.”
In the lawsuit, he also said that he had contacted the Legal Aid Society, and as a result, “I have correction officers retaliating against me.” He died about two weeks later.
“It appears that correction officers had grown impatient with Mr. Spear’s persistent requests for medical treatment, and that they punished him by beating him to death,” his lawyers wrote last year in a letter to the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, asking that it open an investigation into Mr. Spear’s death.
The lawyers complained in their letter that the Bronx district attorney’s office, which had been investigating the case, was moving too slowly.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, said, “The Bronx D.A.'s office did a full investigation of the case, and determined it couldn’t prove criminal responsibility on the officers’ behalf beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Mr. Abady, the family’s lawyer, said on Friday that he had learned that Mr. Bharara’s office was now conducting a civil rights investigation into Mr. Spear’s death. A spokesman for Mr. Bharara declined to comment.
Two inmates who provided sworn statements to the family’s lawyers said Mr. Spear had raised frequent complaints about his care. The witnesses — Jesse James and Shawn Fraser — said that on the morning of Dec. 19, 2012, Mr. Spear asked to see a captain after getting into a disagreement with an officer about his treatment.
The officer grabbed Mr. Spear’s arm and hit him three or four times, knocking him down, the inmates said. They added that as he lay on the floor, two other officers held him, while the first officer kicked him repeatedly in the face and chest.
A third inmate who also provided a statement, Julius Newton, said that he looked into the hallway and saw an officer “kicking Ronald, who was lying on the ground” and not moving.
Mr. Spear’s sister, Nellie Kelly, said in a phone interview that the settlement was unlikely to change “the way that the officers behave, the way the city allows them to behave.”
It would have “no major impact on anything,” she added.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) New York City Reviewing Rikers Assaults on 129 Inmates
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ and MICHAEL WINERIP
New York City’s Department of Investigation has begun a review of scores of cases involving inmates at Rikers Island who were assaulted by correction officers and suffered serious injuries.
The department, which combats corruption in city agencies, is looking into the 129 cases from an 11-month period in 2013 that were detailed in an article in The New York Times last week, said Diane Struzzi, the department’s spokeswoman.
The injuries were the focus of a secret report, completed this year by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and obtained by The Times, highlighting a culture of violence that, in particular, victimizes inmates with mental illnesses.The review of the cases is now part of a broader investigation that the watchdog agency has been conducting at Rikers involving violence and corruption. It is being staffed by 30 investigators, including 19 who work on the inquiry full time. Already, eight correction officers and a captain have been arrested, and charged with assaults on inmates, contraband smuggling and falsifying documents to cover up malfeasance.
In an interview on Monday, Mark G. Peters, the department’s commissioner, called Rikers Island “a significant priority” for his agency, and said his investigators are trying to determine the “scope and contours of the problem” at the jail complex.
He emphasized that issues at Rikers appeared to go beyond mere brutality, and highlighted in particular efforts to cover up incidents. He described a case from October in which three correction officers assaulted an inmate, then, with the help of a captain, fabricated evidence to make it look as if the man tried to hang himself with his own pants.
In a video of the episode viewed by The Times, the officers can be seen scuffling with the inmate at the cell’s threshold, then pushing their way inside. They spent about three minutes there, during which, according to the Investigation Department, they threw the inmate to the floor and repeatedly kicked and punched him in the head and torso. A minute later, according to the video, a captain entered the cell and was heard by a nearby inmate discussing how to handle the situation, the department said.
Correction Department rules permit officers to enter an inmate’s cell only when there is an immediate threat, such as a suicide attempt.
In the 15 minutes that followed, the captain is seen heading to a jail clinic, where she fashions a noose out of the inmate’s pants, twisting the legs and tying them together in a loop. She then places the pants on the floor and uses a digital camera to take photographs that the department said were eventually uploaded to the Correction Department’s incident reporting system.
The case is troubling “because there was a supervisor whose job it was to make sure that we follow the rules who manufactured evidence to help the people she supervises to break the rules,” Mr. Peters said. “That’s an attack not on an individual inmate, but upon the justice system and civil order.”
The Investigation Department referred the case to the Bronx district attorney’s office for prosecution in March and then raised it with prosecutors again in June in a letter. With any case referred to prosecutors, Mr. Peters said, there is a “careful review by a number of veteran prosecutors” at the department “who conclude that there is a criminal matter that can be prosecuted.”
Even so, last week Robert T. Johnson, the Bronx district attorney, declined to prosecute the matter.
The department’s inquiry into Rikers, which began in June, followed a stream of revelations published in The Times and elsewhere about serious problems at the jail complex. In the last nine months, one inmate, a mentally ill Marine Corps veteran, died in an overheated cell, while another died after being locked in a cell for seven days, naked and covered in feces.
In its four-month investigation, The Times found that inmates had suffered fractured jaws and eye sockets, wounds requiring stitches and severe head and back injuries during altercations with correction officers. Some were beaten by multiple guards, while handcuffed, and after suicide attempts, sometimes in full view of witnesses, including other inmates and medical personnel.
Though still early in its inquiry, the Investigation Department has uncovered multiple cases of contraband smuggling and falsification of evidence by correction officers. Two officers were arrested in June after they were caught with up to eight ounces of cocaine during a sweep by department investigators.
The Investigation Department, which was created in 1873 in response to the endemic municipal corruption of the Gilded Age, monitors 45 city agencies for corruption and misconduct. The department has the authority to enact an arrest, but typically refers cases to the district attorney for prosecution.
In the past, the department has investigated Rikers Island in a piecemeal fashion, focusing on individual cases. After taking office in February, Mr. Peters said it became clear that a more systemic investigation was warranted, and he assigned more investigators to the examination.
He said he had received strong support in his efforts from Joseph Ponte, the commissioner of the Correction Department, who took office in April and has vowed to reform Rikers Island.
More arrests are expected before the department wraps up its investigation in the fall, Mr. Peters said.
Though he said it was too early to draw conclusions about the investigation, he did say that in order to reduce contraband smuggling, there should be more screening of correction officers when they enter the jails.
“Given the arrests we’ve done, there’s no doubt that correction officers are involved in smuggling,” he said. “But until we finish our investigation, we can’t speculate on the full scope of the involvement.”
Mr. Peters also said he opposed calls by lawyers with the Legal Aid Society and others for an outside federal monitor to oversee the jails, similar to those who oversee the Fire and Police Departments.
“Federal monitors and the Department of Justice get involved when localities are unwilling or unable to fix institutional problems,” he said. “We are absolutely willing and able to investigate this matter.”
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12) In 9 Cases of Police Chokeholds, Punishment Was Rare, Review Board Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/nyregion/9-cases-of-police-chokeholds-punishment-was-rare-review-board-says.html?ref=nyregion
From 2009 to 2013, an oversight board substantiated nine complaints by people who said New York City police officers restrained them with a chokehold, a banned tactic that may have played a role in the death of a Staten Island man last week.
In each of the nine cases, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency that investigates police misconduct, recommended that the Police Department pursue the strongest form of punishment for the officers: an administrative trial, which could lead to termination.
But the police commissioner has the final say in such cases, and in all but one of the cases decided, the officers were not disciplined, or were given the lightest possible sanction: a review of the rules.The department’s response in the nine cases, documented in monthly reports by the board, raised uncomfortable questions for the Police Department, which prohibits chokeholds because of the risk of serious injury or death, but in practice appears to treat the maneuver as little more than a lapse.
How the department treats officers in such situations has come under new scrutiny after the death of the Staten Island man, Eric Garner, who was held by an officer in an apparent chokehold on Thursday. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, was stripped of his badge and gun as an investigation into the death goes on.
Video of the arrest, apparently for selling untaxed cigarettes, appeared to show Officer Pantaleo wrapping his arm around the neck of Mr. Garner, who had been arguing with officers and objecting to being arrested. The two men fell to the ground, and other officers joined in restraining Mr. Garner as he said he was not able to breathe.
The two emergency medical technicians and the two paramedics who responded to Mr. Garner have been suspended without pay, the Richmond University Medical Center said Monday.
Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the video appeared to show a chokehold.
“Each case must be considered as to the specifics of the underlying actions,” said Stephen Davis, the department’s top spokesman. “The circumstances vary as to a number of different variables, ‘dangerousness’ being just one of them, the nature of the ‘chokehold’ being another.”
Mr. Bratton has said the practice, more common in the 1980s before many departments banned its use, had not been a problem in the first six months of his tenure. He told reporters Friday that officers were officially reminded last year that chokeholds are not allowed.
Despite the ban, complaints of officers’ using chokeholds have steadily come before the review board. From 2009 to 2013, the board received 1,022 such complaints. In nine of those cases, investigators were able to find evidence to back up the complaint and bring it to the attention of the department.
Details of the nine substantiated cases were not immediately available, except for the precincts where they occurred and the basics of the dispositions. Most took place in the Bronx and Brooklyn; none
The review board recommended that each officer be brought before an administrative court, on the fourth floor of Police Headquarters, where a department judge would rule in the case. If found guilty, the officer would face suspension or possible termination.But in two cases of chokeholds, in 2009 and in 2010, the department under Raymond W. Kelly, then commissioner, declined altogether to pursue an administrative trial, effectively deciding not to discipline the officer.
In three cases, from 2009 to 2011, officers were issued “instructions” by Mr. Kelly, a designation that amounts to retraining on the rules. One officer retired before a judgment could be ruled, and two cases from 2013 are still pending a decision in an administrative trial.
One pending case began with plainclothes officers approaching a man for riding his bike on a Queens sidewalk in January 2012, and ended with the officer and the man wrestling on the ground. The man said the officer held him in a chokehold for more than a minute; the officer has denied doing so.
Only once in the last five years, August 2009, did Mr. Kelly issue a modest punishment against an officer for a chokehold, a command discipline that carried a loss of vacation days.
So far, Mr. Bratton has not had to decide whether and how to discipline an officer for a chokehold. There is no set time, after a trial, for the police commissioner to render his decision. In the previous administration, such decisions could take up to a year. The last time a person died from an apparent chokehold was 1994; Mr. Bratton was commissioner then as well. A federal jury eventually convicted the officer.
At least one complaint reported to the department in 2014 has been substantiated so far: a case in February in the 77th Precinct in Brooklyn. In that case, the review board recommended charges. A trial has yet to be scheduled.
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13) Medical Workers Face Scrutiny After Man’s Death in Police Custody
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
After Eric Garner died in police custody last week on Staten Island, critics fixed their attention on the chokehold that an officer appeared to use to subdue him during a confrontation.
But in the days since, as another video of the encounter emerged, the conduct of the two paramedics and two emergency medical technicians who responded has also come under considerable scrutiny.
On Monday, the emergency medical workers were suspended without pay by their employer, the Richmond University Medical Center, as the hospital and the Fire Department — which coordinates emergency medical response citywide — review the incident. The suspensions are the latest fallout from the death of Mr. Garner on Thursday in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island. The officer who appeared to use the chokehold, a banned tactic, has been stripped of his badge and gun. Another officer, who helped hold Mr. Garner down, has been placed on desk duty. And Internal Affairs investigators are examining the roles of other officers who were at the scene of the fatal encounter.
Officers from the 120th Precinct were trying to arrest Mr. Garner for selling loose cigarettes, but he complained angrily that they were harassing him, and he made clear he did not want to be taken into custody. One of the officers came up behind Mr. Garner, put his arm around his neck and pulled him to the ground as other officers moved in.
Once on the ground, Mr. Garner began to complain that he could not breathe; by the time an ambulance arrived minutes later, he appeared to be unconscious.
The emergency medical workers appear to act without urgency or intensity in assessing Mr. Garner as he lay on the sidewalk outside a Bay Street beauty salon. That response has added to public anger over the death and has fueled criticism by experts in emergency medicine. One concern expressed by some experts is that the emergency medical workers were intimidated by a large police presence and as a result failed to follow protocol.
One medical worker appears in the video to do little more than feel Mr. Garner’s wrist and neck for a pulse before helping to lift him onto a stretcher.
“It was like she either didn’t want to be there, which is hard to understand, or police basically told her to just let him alone,” said Dr. Alexander Kuehl, who led the Emergency Medical Services in New York City during the 1980s. “She certainly didn’t do her job.”
In a typical situation, medical experts said, medical personnel would have been expected to ensure that Mr. Garner’s airway was clear, to check that he was breathing and to monitor his circulation. Emergency workers’ tentative approach, the experts said, may have kept Mr. Garner from receiving vital treatment.
“Obviously, state protocol is that if someone’s having difficulty breathing, you’re supposed to give them supplemental oxygen,” said Israel Miranda, president of the Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors F.D.N.Y. Local 2507, which does not represent the workers involved. “Based on the video,” Mr. Miranda added, “I didn’t see anything being done at that point.”
It is not yet clear what information emergency medical workers were given about Mr. Garner’s condition when they were dispatched or what they discovered when they arrived. Responding to an onlooker’s question about why no one was administering C.P.R., a police officer on the video said that Mr. Garner was breathing. Mr. Garner appeared to be unconscious when the first emergency medical technician arrived.
Regardless of Mr. Garner’s condition, the medical workers’ apparent hesitancy struck medical experts as unusual.
Medical workers in that situation would have been expected to take over the scene by removing Mr. Garner’s handcuffs and checking his breathing, Dr. Kuehl said. In this case, he added, surrounded by a large group of police officers, the emergency medical worker may have taken her cue from the officers and skipped critical steps.
“She’s totally overawed by the cops,” Dr. Kuehl said. “She doesn’t do her assessment at all. There was something very peculiar about her approach.”
Despite the police officer’s assurance in the video, Dr. Kuehl said, there was no sign that Mr. Garner was breathing, and emergency medical technicians did not appear to check.
Typical protocol would have dictated that emergency medical technicians use an oxygen mask to facilitate breathing for an unresponsive patient, medical experts said, and even apply a cervical spine collar to protect the neck in the aftermath of the chokehold.
The video did not show the emergency medical worker who knelt next to Mr. Garner with any such equipment.
Mr. Garner’s size — he weighed 350 pounds — complicated the response by both medical workers and the police. But experts said that the medical workers appeared to ignore the risks to Mr. Garner’s neck and spine by having him heaved onto a stretcher.
“They did the most inartful transfer of a patient to a stretcher that I’ve ever seen,” Dr. Kuehl said. “If he had a broken neck, he would’ve had a severed spine no matter what after that.”
Sanford Rubenstein, a personal injury lawyer who has been involved in high-profile cases of police misconduct, said on Monday that Mr. Garner’s family had retained his services.
Litigation over the death would be a long way off, but observers say that New York State case law sets a high bar for holding emergency medical workers accountable.
The plaintiff has to show, among other things, that the emergency medical worker knew that inaction could lead to harm.
“You’d think sometimes that the law is a little unkind when it seems so clear-cut that they had a responsibility here,” said Michael Levine, president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
14) Darkness Falls on Gaza
Gaza Under Israel’s Onslaught
By MOHAMMED OMER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/opinion/gaza-under-israels-onslaught.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region
GAZA CITY
RAMADAN, when night descends, is usually a joyous time. Friends and family gather to break their fast at the iftar meal. Not this year.
Nights are the worst. That is when the bombing escalates. Nowhere is safe. Not a mosque. Not a church. Not a school, or even a hospital. All are potential targets.
On Monday, the Israeli military fired artillery rounds at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, claiming to target a cache of anti-tank missiles. Dr. Khalil Khattab, a surgeon, was operating on a patient when the first shell struck. He ran to the floors below to discover at least four dead and dozens of colleagues — doctors, nurses, orderlies and administrators — injured. The medical staff had become patients.The Gaza Strip — a little less than half the size of New York City — is home to 1.8 million people, mainly Muslims, with a small Christian minority. Its population is cut off from the world, living under the blockade imposed by Egypt and Israel in 2007. For anyone over the age of 7, this is the third time they’ve lived through a sustained attack.
In two weeks of bombing and shelling, more than 600 Palestinians have been reported killed. Since the Israeli ground invasion began, 28 Israeli soldiers have died; the conflict has also claimed the lives of two Israeli civilians.
Here in Gaza City, the electricity was gone; it was dark everywhere. The water supply was foul, food was rancid, and fear permeated the summer night.
On Eighth Street, I visited the al-Baba family. For this family of 15, a corrugated tin roof was all that stood between them and the bombs. Hani al-Baba, 23, heard the hum of a drone. Some are for surveillance, some are weaponized. Which is which, one never knows. The sound was enough to send the children scurrying into corners, trembling and praying. Nervously, Hani scanned the night sky.
Israeli strikes have taken out entire families. In a town near Khan Younis on Sunday, more than 20 members of the Abu Jameh family died when their home was hit. For safety, Hani’s father split the family into different rooms — a scene played out in nearly every home in Gaza, a grim shell game of family members.
Suddenly, a bomb exploded in the field behind the al-Babas’ house: a boom followed by a flash of light. Everyone screamed. The ground shook, the air seemed to implode, sucking the breath from lungs.
Then it was dark again. Why this area was being bombed was unclear. There were no “terrorists,” no rockets. It was a neighborhood of families, scared and cowering in the dark.
The long siege has bled the Gaza Strip dry. There is no money for public services; the majority of the population lives in abject poverty. And now at least 120,000 Gazans have been displaced by the fighting, thousands taking temporary shelter in United Nations schools. Many will return to homes damaged or destroyed, with little or no means to rebuild. Cement is especially severely rationed because Israel suspects it is diverted by Hamas to build tunnels for fighters.
In Shifa Hospital, what struck me were the resilience and dignity of the families. Forced to evacuate under gunfire, they had become refugees in their own land. I watched a grandmother who’d fled the east of the city comforting her four grandchildren and two daughters. The family broke their fast with slices of bread, two yogurts, cucumber and tomatoes. This was their iftar.A cease-fire agreement is possible, but all parties need to be at the table; Hamas was not consulted over the one proposed by Egypt last week. Even peace might be possible — if the international community has the courage to engage in dialogue with Hamas. The terms outlined by Hamas for a cease-fire are the same as those the United Nations has called for repeatedly: open the border crossings; let people work, study and build the economy. A population capable of taking care of its own would enhance Israel’s security. One that cannot leads to desperation.
In January 2008, barriers along the Gaza-Egypt border were knocked down. Thousands of Gazans poured into Egypt to acquire much needed supplies. I remember the relief within the Palestinian community. This transient glimpse of freedom was a treat.
A neighbor of mine was simply delighted to drink a Coca-Cola. The freedom to move, fresh food and clean water, and the simple pleasure of sipping a soda, this is what Gazans need: the normal life everyone else takes for granted. During the first days the border was open, Hamas suspended rocket attacks from Gaza. Israeli politicians should take note.
Whatever its official statements, Israel has no interest in destroying Hamas; it seeks merely to weaken and isolate it. Hamas gives Israel an out, a convenient villain, someone to blame. Yet the siege of Gaza serves no purpose other than to radicalize the next generation.
Families like the al-Babas shouldn’t have to move their children around the house in the hope that some may survive. Nor should families in Ashdod, over the border in Israel, have to hide in bomb shelters from the militants’ rockets.
Without a process that includes all parties at the negotiating table, though, I fear this cycle of violence, punitive and disproportionate as it is, can lead only to an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-type extremism among the Palestinians. Only the darkest cynic would wish for that.
Mohammed Omer is a reporter for The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and other publications.
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15) Prosecutors Are Reading Emails From Inmates to Lawyers
The extortion case against Thomas DiFiore, a reputed boss in the Bonanno crime family, encompassed thousands of pages of evidence, including surveillance photographs, cellphone and property records, and hundreds of hours of audio recordings.
But even as Mr. DiFiore sat in a jail cell, sending nearly daily emails to his lawyers on his case and his deteriorating health, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn sought to add another layer of evidence: those very emails. The prosecutors informed Mr. DiFiore last month that they would be reading the emails sent to his lawyers from jail, potentially using his own words against him.
Jailhouse conversations have been many a defendant’s downfall through incriminating words spoken to inmates or visitors, or in phone calls to friends or relatives. Inmates’ calls to or from lawyers, however, are generally exempt from such monitoring. But across the country, federal prosecutors have begun reading prisoners’ emails to lawyers — a practice wholly embraced in Brooklyn, where prosecutors have said they intend to read such emails in almost every case.
The issue has spurred court battles over whether inmates have a right to confidential email communications with their lawyers — a question on which federal judges have been divided.
An incarcerated former Pennsylvania state senator got into further trouble in 2011 when prosecutors seized his prison emails. In Georgia, officials built a contempt case against a man already in federal prison in part by using emails between him and his lawyers obtained in 2011. And in Austin, Tex., defense lawyers have accused members of law enforcement of recording attorney-client calls from jails, then using that information to tighten their cases.
“It’s very troubling that the government’s pushing to the margins of the attorney-client relationship,” said Ellen C. Yaroshefsky, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law.
Defense lawyers say the government is overstepping its authority and taking away a necessary tool for an adequate defense. Some of them have refused to admit even the existence of sensitive emails — which, they say, perhaps predictably, are privileged.
All defendants using the federal prison email system, Trulincs, have to read and accept a notice that communications are monitored, prosecutors in Brooklyn pointed out. Prosecutors once had a “filter team” to set aside defendants’ emails to and from lawyers, but budget cuts no longer allow for that, they said.
While prosecutors say there are other ways for defense lawyers to communicate with clients, defense lawyers say those are absurdly inefficient.
A scheduled visit to see Syed Imran Ahmed, a surgeon accused of Medicare fraud who is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, took lawyers five hours, according to court documents filed by one of Dr. Ahmed’s lawyers, Morris J. Fodeman. The trip included travel time from Manhattan and waiting for jail personnel to retrieve Dr. Ahmed.
Getting confidential postal mail to inmates takes up to two weeks, Mr. Fodeman wrote. The detention center, like all federal jails, is supposed to allow inmates or lawyers to arrange unmonitored phone calls. But a paralegal spent four days and left eight messages requesting such a call and got nowhere, Mr. Fodeman wrote.
Dr. Ahmed’s case includes 50,000 pages of documents so far, including “Medicare claim data and patient information that we need Dr. Ahmed’s assistance to understand,” Mr. Fodeman wrote. Especially since he is acting as a public defender in this case — meaning the government pays him at $125 per hour — Mr. Fodeman argued that having to arrange an in-person visit or unmonitored phone call for every small question on the case was a waste of money and time.
In Brooklyn and across the country, the issue is being decided case by case. A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment, citing the continuing litigation.
In Georgia, a man named Jared Wheat, in prison for conspiring to import fake prescription drugs, used Trulincs email to work on ads for weight-loss products. The Federal Trade Commission used the emails as part of a successful contempt case, arguing he violated a permanent injunction barring him from making unsubstantiated weight-loss claims.
Mr. Wheat’s lawyers said the trade commission’s request for the emails was illegal. Federal regulations allow mail sent to prisons to be marked as privileged, and “email, particularly in the 21st century, has effectively replaced U.S. Postal Service mail for most communications, and this court should not treat it differently than traditional mail,” his lawyers wrote.
But a judge, Charles A. Pannell Jr. of the United States District Court in Atlanta, ruled in 2012 that by using Trulincs, Mr. Wheat “consented to the monitoring and thus had no reasonable expectation of privacy.”A defense lawyer for the former Pennsylvania senator, Vincent J. Fumo, futilely tried to get Mr. Fumo to stop sending him emails from prison, such as a 2011 email about his plans to write a book about his experience.
“Please try to keep in mind that CorrLinks email is monitored and unprivileged,” the lawyer, Peter Goldberger, wrote, using another name for the email system. “I think this line of messages is a good example of a topic that is not suitable for discussion in this medium.”
Later that day, Mr. Fumo contacted Mr. Goldberger about his analysis of a Court of Appeals hearing on his case. “I look forward to reading your further analysis, but NOT on the email system,” Mr. Goldberger wrote.
The government collected Mr. Fumo’s emails from prison — more than 12,000 pages’ worth over six months — for inclusion in its argument for a harsh resentencing. Mr. Fumo received six additional months; he has since been released on probation.
In Brooklyn, Steve Zissou, a lawyer for Mr. DiFiore, tried to persuade a judge to stop prosecutors from monitoring his client’s emails. Prosecutors had confirmed that they “intended to read my communications with Mr. DiFiore over Trulincs,” he wrote. “Regardless of whether such communications qualify for protection under the attorney-client privilege, the government’s decision to read our communications with our client is entirely inappropriate.”
The judge overseeing that case, Allyne R. Ross, ruled on Thursday that the government was allowed to review the emails. “The government’s policy does not ‘unreasonably interfere’ with Mr. DiFiore’s ability to consult his counsel,” she wrote.
In Dr. Ahmed’s case, the judge, Dora L. Irizarry, ruled against the government last month, barring it “from looking at any of the attorney-client emails, period.”
She seemed to take particular offense at an argument by a prosecutor, F. Turner Buford, who suggested that prosecutors merely wanted to avoid the expense and hassle of having to separate attorney-client emails from other emails sent via Trulincs. The government was not otherwise interested in the contents of those messages, he said.
“That’s hogwash,” Judge Irizarry said. “You’re going to tell me you don’t want to know what your adversary’s strategy is? What kind of a litigator are you then? Give me a break.”
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17) Palestinian Family Finds Missing Son in YouTube Video of His Shooting
[The video in this article is very hard to look at. An unarmed young man is murdered in cold blood. This horror continues just in order to keep Palestinians out of Israel because it is a "Jewish State" that deems that Palestinians are second-class people not deserving of life. A separate Jewish State is insane, criminal. All human beings should have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are inalienable rights that belong to all! For a free, democratic and secular Palestine! ...bw]
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18) U.S. Religious Leaders Embrace Cause of Immigrant Children
After
protesters shouting “Go Home” turned back busloads of immigrant mothers
and children in Murrieta, Calif., a furious Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan,
the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, sat down at his notepad and
drafted a blog post detailing his shame at the episode, writing, “It was un-American; it was un-biblical; it was inhumane.”
When the governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, said he did not want the migrants in his state, declaring, “We can’t accept every child in the world who has problems,” clergy in Des Moines held a prayer vigil at a United Methodist Church to demonstrate their desire to make room for the refugees.America’s response to the arrival of tens of thousands of migrant children, many of them fleeing violence and exploitation in Central America, has been symbolized by an angry pushback from citizens and local officials who have channeled their outrage over illegal immigration into opposition to proposed shelter sites. But around the nation and across the theological spectrum, religious leaders, as well as government officials citing religious beliefs, are offering a different reaction, saying the nation can and should welcome and tend to the migrants.
“We’re talking about whether we’re going to stand at the border and tell children who are fleeing a burning building to go back inside,” said Rabbi Asher Knight, of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, who said leaders of more than 100 faith organizations in his city met last week to discuss how to help. He said that in his own congregation some are comparing the flow of immigrant children to the Kindertransport, a rescue mission in the late 1930s that sent Jewish children from Nazi Germany to Britain for safekeeping.
“The question for us is: how do we want to be remembered, as yelling and screaming to go back, or as using the teachings of our traditions to have compassion and love and grace for the lives of God’s children?” Rabbi Knight said.
The backlash to the backlash is broad — from Unitarian Universalists and Quakers to evangelical Protestants. Among the most agitated are Catholic bishops, who have long allied with Republican politicians against abortion and same-sex marriage, and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, whose adherents tend to lean right.
“This is a crisis, and not simply a political crisis, but a moral one,” said Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. On Tuesday, Mr. Moore led a delegation of Southern Baptist officials to visit refugee children at detention centers in San Antonio and McAllen, Tex. In an interview after the visit, Mr. Moore said that “the anger directed toward vulnerable children is deplorable and disgusting” and added, “The first thing is to make sure we understand these are not issues, these are persons — these children are made in the image of God, and we ought to respond to them with compassion, not with fear.”
Also on Tuesday, a coalition of evangelical organizations sent a letter to members of Congress, opposing proposals for expedited deportation of the migrants. A similar letter is being prepared by a wide range of mainline denominations, including the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. The Catholic Church also opposes any effort to make it easier to deport children; last week, the archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis E. George, said he had offered facilities in his diocese to house some of the children, and on Monday, bishops in Dallas and Fort Worth called for lawyers to volunteer to represent the children at immigration proceedings.
“We have to put our money where our mouth is in this country,” said Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We tell other countries to protect human rights and accept refugees, but when we get a crisis on our border, we don’t know how to respond.”
Republicans have pushed for changes to immigration law in exchange for approving more funds to respond to the surge of migrants. And while President Obama says he has been open to some changes, many Democrats have opposed them, and Congress is now deadlocked.
Various religious groups are trying to assist the migrants directly — by offering food, shelter, and legal services. The Episcopal Church is providing hygeine and nutrition packets; the United Methodist Church is offering showers and clothing; the United Church of Christ has started a nationwide fund-raising appeal. Catholic Charities USA has opened seven “welcome centers” along the border.
“As a Christian organization, we feel like we have no choice — we are clearly called by scripture to respond to all children in need,” said Jesse Eaves, the senior adviser for child protection at World Vision, a large evangelical charity.
Attitudes among evangelicals are changing, particularly at the leadership level, according to the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
“I remember when my fellow evangelicals said deport them all, they’re here illegally, end of story, but the leadership now supports immigration reform,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “There’s still angst in the pews, but if they listen more to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John than to Rush Limbaugh, they’ll act with compassion towards these children.”
The Rev. Larry Snyder, the president of Catholic Charities USA, said the charitable work has not been welcomed in every community.
“Some city authorities are intimidated by the hate talk that you hear, and I even talk to some pastors who say they have to be careful because their parishioners aren’t behind us,” Father Snyder said. “If Jesus said anything, it was that your neighbor is everyone. I wish people would embrace that a little more than they do.”
Asked about the concerns religious organizations are expressing about unaccompanied minors, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, “Generous acts from average citizens don’t routinely generate headlines, but they accurately reflect the values of the vast majority of Americans." A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner did not respond to a request for comment.
Some political leaders have cited religious or moral arguments in offering support for the migrants. Last Friday, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts tearfully cited the Bible and declared, “I don’t know what good there is in faith if we can’t, and won’t, turn to it in moments of human need,” as he suggested that migrant children could be temporarily housed at military bases in his state. And on Monday, briefing reporters in Rome after meeting with a top Vatican official, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York praised Pope Francis’s support for the migrant children, and said, “I emphasize that New York City agrees with the position of the Holy See, that we have to embrace all immigrants.”
In Des Moines on Monday night, the mayor, Frank Cownie, attended the church vigil held by supporters of the migrant children. About 200 people gathered, from Catholic, Lutheran, United Methodist, Quaker, and United Church of Christ congregations, as they heard stories from immigrants and expressed a desire to change the way their state’s posture toward the migrants might be perceived. “I think for me the most important thing is to show that people in Iowa are compassionate and welcoming,” said the Rev. Alejandro Alfaro-Santiz, the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church.
Ann Klein contributed reporting from Des Moines.
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19) U.S. Military Suicides Rise Slightly
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20) Eyes on Gaza, Tensions Flare in Brooklyn
The worshipers, young and old, converged on mosques in Brooklyn this weekend, seeking olive green rugs on which to rest their knees, and pray. One week before the end of Ramadan, prayers rebounded off the walls with even more fervor than usual.
Then, Muslim leaders say, rancor that may have stemmed from the destruction in Gaza marred gatherings bookending two daily Ramadan fasts, reigniting tensions in a community where news of hostility in the Middle East tends to rattle both Muslims and Jews.
On Friday evening, outside a prayer gathering preceding the nightly meal, men in a white Lexus flung eggs at three elderly worshipers entering a mosque on Coney Island Avenue. “This is for your Allah!” the vandals shouted.Two days later, just as dawn broke on Sunday, 25 blocks away, a group of teenagers rolled past the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge seven times in a car, blaring with makeshift sirens and lights. “Burn to the ground!” they chanted as they waved Israeli flags. When the car stopped, a young worshiper retaliated by hurling a bottle, nicking one of the hecklers on his nose and hands.
The two incidents, which some viewed as reprisals of the kind that occasionally intrude on Ramadan festivities in New York, flustered some who have been glued to YouTube and their phones for word about friends and relatives in Gaza.
At a news conference on Tuesday at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, where a majority of the worshipers are Palestinian, religious leaders and elected officials condemned the acts, which they said seemed designed to provoke Muslims at a delicate moment.
“These people in this mosque are directly connected to what’s happening in Gaza every day,” said Linda Sarsour, a Muslim activist in Brooklyn. “These are people with raw emotions, and they feel even more outraged that you’d choose a time when we’re grieving family and watching relatives scattered on the streets to do something like this.”
Surveillance video of the incident in Bay Ridge is being reviewed by the Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, elected officials including State Senator Martin J. Golden said, though no one has been arrested. They said police officers have identified the teenagers involved.
Leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community traveled to the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge yesterday to apologize to leaders at the mosque, Ms. Sarsour said, adding, “We appreciate their visit here to the mosque to have this constructive dialogue.”
Monday night, members of the task force visited the mosque on Coney Island Avenue, the Thayba Islamic Center, but have not identified suspects, said Abdul Manaf, a spokesman.
The clamor this weekend was but one flare-up in a cycle of violence that often goes unnoticed, Mr. Manaf said. Worshipers at his mosque were also attacked earlier during Ramadan, he said, and anti-Muslim graffiti was discovered in Brooklyn this month.
“The most beautiful part is that none of them has retaliated,” Mr. Manaf said. “None of these guys are letting it trickle down to the youngsters.”
In one measure of the growing influence of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge in a neighborhood that was once largely Italian and Irish, elected officials and reporters thought to remove their shoes before entering the prayer room where the news conference was being held. Rabbis wearing skullcaps mingled with imams in flowing white robes as barefooted reporters jostled for space on the light green carpet, reminiscent of the olive trees that dot the hills of Palestine.
A week earlier, the same leaders had gathered for a cross-cultural Ramadan banquet and the launch of an anti-hate campaign.
“It really breaks my heart, being brought up in Borough Park, where there was such a numerous amount of Holocaust survivors,” said Douglas Jablon, a Jewish leader.
Visitors scattered as a midafternoon call to prayer sounded.
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21) What the Hobby Lobby Ruling Means for America
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15) Prosecutors Are Reading Emails From Inmates to Lawyers
The extortion case against Thomas DiFiore, a reputed boss in the Bonanno crime family, encompassed thousands of pages of evidence, including surveillance photographs, cellphone and property records, and hundreds of hours of audio recordings.
But even as Mr. DiFiore sat in a jail cell, sending nearly daily emails to his lawyers on his case and his deteriorating health, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn sought to add another layer of evidence: those very emails. The prosecutors informed Mr. DiFiore last month that they would be reading the emails sent to his lawyers from jail, potentially using his own words against him.
Jailhouse conversations have been many a defendant’s downfall through incriminating words spoken to inmates or visitors, or in phone calls to friends or relatives. Inmates’ calls to or from lawyers, however, are generally exempt from such monitoring. But across the country, federal prosecutors have begun reading prisoners’ emails to lawyers — a practice wholly embraced in Brooklyn, where prosecutors have said they intend to read such emails in almost every case.
The issue has spurred court battles over whether inmates have a right to confidential email communications with their lawyers — a question on which federal judges have been divided.
An incarcerated former Pennsylvania state senator got into further trouble in 2011 when prosecutors seized his prison emails. In Georgia, officials built a contempt case against a man already in federal prison in part by using emails between him and his lawyers obtained in 2011. And in Austin, Tex., defense lawyers have accused members of law enforcement of recording attorney-client calls from jails, then using that information to tighten their cases.
“It’s very troubling that the government’s pushing to the margins of the attorney-client relationship,” said Ellen C. Yaroshefsky, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law.
Defense lawyers say the government is overstepping its authority and taking away a necessary tool for an adequate defense. Some of them have refused to admit even the existence of sensitive emails — which, they say, perhaps predictably, are privileged.
All defendants using the federal prison email system, Trulincs, have to read and accept a notice that communications are monitored, prosecutors in Brooklyn pointed out. Prosecutors once had a “filter team” to set aside defendants’ emails to and from lawyers, but budget cuts no longer allow for that, they said.
While prosecutors say there are other ways for defense lawyers to communicate with clients, defense lawyers say those are absurdly inefficient.
A scheduled visit to see Syed Imran Ahmed, a surgeon accused of Medicare fraud who is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, took lawyers five hours, according to court documents filed by one of Dr. Ahmed’s lawyers, Morris J. Fodeman. The trip included travel time from Manhattan and waiting for jail personnel to retrieve Dr. Ahmed.
Getting confidential postal mail to inmates takes up to two weeks, Mr. Fodeman wrote. The detention center, like all federal jails, is supposed to allow inmates or lawyers to arrange unmonitored phone calls. But a paralegal spent four days and left eight messages requesting such a call and got nowhere, Mr. Fodeman wrote.
Dr. Ahmed’s case includes 50,000 pages of documents so far, including “Medicare claim data and patient information that we need Dr. Ahmed’s assistance to understand,” Mr. Fodeman wrote. Especially since he is acting as a public defender in this case — meaning the government pays him at $125 per hour — Mr. Fodeman argued that having to arrange an in-person visit or unmonitored phone call for every small question on the case was a waste of money and time.
In Brooklyn and across the country, the issue is being decided case by case. A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment, citing the continuing litigation.
In Georgia, a man named Jared Wheat, in prison for conspiring to import fake prescription drugs, used Trulincs email to work on ads for weight-loss products. The Federal Trade Commission used the emails as part of a successful contempt case, arguing he violated a permanent injunction barring him from making unsubstantiated weight-loss claims.
Mr. Wheat’s lawyers said the trade commission’s request for the emails was illegal. Federal regulations allow mail sent to prisons to be marked as privileged, and “email, particularly in the 21st century, has effectively replaced U.S. Postal Service mail for most communications, and this court should not treat it differently than traditional mail,” his lawyers wrote.
But a judge, Charles A. Pannell Jr. of the United States District Court in Atlanta, ruled in 2012 that by using Trulincs, Mr. Wheat “consented to the monitoring and thus had no reasonable expectation of privacy.”A defense lawyer for the former Pennsylvania senator, Vincent J. Fumo, futilely tried to get Mr. Fumo to stop sending him emails from prison, such as a 2011 email about his plans to write a book about his experience.
“Please try to keep in mind that CorrLinks email is monitored and unprivileged,” the lawyer, Peter Goldberger, wrote, using another name for the email system. “I think this line of messages is a good example of a topic that is not suitable for discussion in this medium.”
Later that day, Mr. Fumo contacted Mr. Goldberger about his analysis of a Court of Appeals hearing on his case. “I look forward to reading your further analysis, but NOT on the email system,” Mr. Goldberger wrote.
The government collected Mr. Fumo’s emails from prison — more than 12,000 pages’ worth over six months — for inclusion in its argument for a harsh resentencing. Mr. Fumo received six additional months; he has since been released on probation.
In Brooklyn, Steve Zissou, a lawyer for Mr. DiFiore, tried to persuade a judge to stop prosecutors from monitoring his client’s emails. Prosecutors had confirmed that they “intended to read my communications with Mr. DiFiore over Trulincs,” he wrote. “Regardless of whether such communications qualify for protection under the attorney-client privilege, the government’s decision to read our communications with our client is entirely inappropriate.”
The judge overseeing that case, Allyne R. Ross, ruled on Thursday that the government was allowed to review the emails. “The government’s policy does not ‘unreasonably interfere’ with Mr. DiFiore’s ability to consult his counsel,” she wrote.
In Dr. Ahmed’s case, the judge, Dora L. Irizarry, ruled against the government last month, barring it “from looking at any of the attorney-client emails, period.”
She seemed to take particular offense at an argument by a prosecutor, F. Turner Buford, who suggested that prosecutors merely wanted to avoid the expense and hassle of having to separate attorney-client emails from other emails sent via Trulincs. The government was not otherwise interested in the contents of those messages, he said.
“That’s hogwash,” Judge Irizarry said. “You’re going to tell me you don’t want to know what your adversary’s strategy is? What kind of a litigator are you then? Give me a break.”
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16) In a Grim Game of Numbers, Israel and Palestinians Vie for Advantage
JERUSALEM
— The grim tallies from Gaza and Israel pour in each morning, dockets
of death, destruction and damage that, with the war entering its 16th
day, begin to seem almost routine.
On Wednesday, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner of the Israeli military said his country had carried out 200 airstrikes in the last 24 hours and 3,250 since the operation began on July 8. Palestinian militants, he said, had launched 2,159 rockets in the same period, 97 of them the day before, which he called “a substantial decline” from a daily average of 143.
Two more Israeli soldiers had been killed, he said, bringing the total to 29. By afternoon, a foreign laborer in a field near Ashkelon was killed by a rocket, bringing the number of civilian deaths on the Israeli side to three.The Gaza-based Health Ministry put the Palestinian death toll at 632 from the beginning of the escalation through 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, including 132 children, 66 women, and 36 elderly men. The toll would soon climb. Witnesses reported heavy clashes and intense artillery fire in Khuza’a, a town of about 10,000 people in the southeast of the strip.
Five Palestinians were killed in the fighting there, health officials said: two children, two brothers ages 23 and 25, and a 60-year-old man. By noon, the Health Ministry raised the total death toll to 642, with 4,120 injured.
The competing efforts by Israel and Palestinian officials to direct the narrative of this conflict are made that much more complicated by the hundreds of reporters on the ground providing almost instantaneous reports of the fighting and the resulting casualties and by the thousands of bloggers, activists and others blasting out information and opinions on social media.
Like every other day since the conflict began, Wednesday began with almost a blur of developments and the likelihood of more to come, each with the potential to become a skirmish in the battle for public opinion and support around the world.
On the diplomatic front, Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Israel and was scheduled to meet with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, at a hotel in Jerusalem; then with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Ramallah; and, later, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Reporters in Jerusalem get their first briefing from the Israeli military, most days, at 7:30 a.m.; preceded on Wednesday — at least for The New York Times — by a wake-up call seven minutes earlier from a soldier in the military’s extensive public relations apparatus.
The Palestine Liberation Organization sends out a daily “Gaza Under Fire” report by email, usually in the afternoon. Wednesday’s reported that, as of noon, 655 people had been killed since the operation’s onset, 4,220 wounded and 1,090 homes demolished. More than 19,000 homes had been damaged, it said, along with 90 schools, six hospitals, six health clinics, 64 mosques — three were destroyed — and eight government buildings. The 14-page report listed the names, and in most cases the locations and ages, of 584 people killed since July 13. “The answer to Israel’s security is not the collective punishment of Palestinians,” was written underneath in bold, capital letters.
The United Nations had said Tuesday that 117,000 displaced people were sheltering in 80 of its schools, and that 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza had “no or very limited access to water or sanitation services.”
Wednesday morning, Gaza City was quieter than usual, but Israeli navy gunboats fired at the coastline all day. There were also a lot of shooting and explosions between Jabaliya, a refugee camp in the north of the strip, and Khan Younis, a city in the south. A flood of families headed toward Khan Younis from the nearby villages of Abasan al-Kabera, Abasan al-Asghira and Bani Suheila, and a local hospital was receiving many wounded people from those places.
Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, confirmed that most of the fighting remained in areas on the periphery of the Gaza Strip and in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya, where 13 soldiers and at least 60 Palestinians were killed Sunday and fierce combat has continued since. He said 30 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours, for a total of 210 — Palestinians put the number of fighters much lower — and that 28 underground tunnels with 68 entry points had been “exposed,” and six of the tunnels “demolished.”
“We are meeting resistance around the tunnels, they are clearly trying to protect these assets, as far as they’re concerned,” Colonel Lerner said. “Shejaiya has turned out to be a more substantial, fortified position, which explains, perhaps, why they are putting so much effort into defending it.”
A senior military intelligence official, in a separate morning conference call, told reporters that Israeli forces were encountering “quite advanced” weapons systems, including Russian-made Kornet and RPG-29 antitank weapons, which he said were probably smuggled through Iran and Syria. Hamas was also using snipers and improvised explosive devices, he said: booby traps in tunnels, suicide bombers in the streets, and explosives strapped to animals.
“The way of fighting is completely the way that some of your armies and forces saw in Iraq and Afghanistan and what we experienced in other places, Lebanon,” the official said. “Underground infrastructure, hiding, and as much as they can fighting from a standoff position, not face-to-face fighting, because in that case they know they have no chance.”
Fares Akram, Tyler Hicks and Sergey Ponomarev contributed reporting from Gaza, Michael R. Gordon from Tel Aviv, and Said Ghazali from Jerusalem.
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16) In a Grim Game of Numbers, Israel and Palestinians Vie for Advantage
By JODI RUDOREN
On Wednesday, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner of the Israeli military said his country had carried out 200 airstrikes in the last 24 hours and 3,250 since the operation began on July 8. Palestinian militants, he said, had launched 2,159 rockets in the same period, 97 of them the day before, which he called “a substantial decline” from a daily average of 143.
Two more Israeli soldiers had been killed, he said, bringing the total to 29. By afternoon, a foreign laborer in a field near Ashkelon was killed by a rocket, bringing the number of civilian deaths on the Israeli side to three.The Gaza-based Health Ministry put the Palestinian death toll at 632 from the beginning of the escalation through 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, including 132 children, 66 women, and 36 elderly men. The toll would soon climb. Witnesses reported heavy clashes and intense artillery fire in Khuza’a, a town of about 10,000 people in the southeast of the strip.
Five Palestinians were killed in the fighting there, health officials said: two children, two brothers ages 23 and 25, and a 60-year-old man. By noon, the Health Ministry raised the total death toll to 642, with 4,120 injured.
The competing efforts by Israel and Palestinian officials to direct the narrative of this conflict are made that much more complicated by the hundreds of reporters on the ground providing almost instantaneous reports of the fighting and the resulting casualties and by the thousands of bloggers, activists and others blasting out information and opinions on social media.
Like every other day since the conflict began, Wednesday began with almost a blur of developments and the likelihood of more to come, each with the potential to become a skirmish in the battle for public opinion and support around the world.
On the diplomatic front, Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Israel and was scheduled to meet with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, at a hotel in Jerusalem; then with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Ramallah; and, later, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Reporters in Jerusalem get their first briefing from the Israeli military, most days, at 7:30 a.m.; preceded on Wednesday — at least for The New York Times — by a wake-up call seven minutes earlier from a soldier in the military’s extensive public relations apparatus.
The Palestine Liberation Organization sends out a daily “Gaza Under Fire” report by email, usually in the afternoon. Wednesday’s reported that, as of noon, 655 people had been killed since the operation’s onset, 4,220 wounded and 1,090 homes demolished. More than 19,000 homes had been damaged, it said, along with 90 schools, six hospitals, six health clinics, 64 mosques — three were destroyed — and eight government buildings. The 14-page report listed the names, and in most cases the locations and ages, of 584 people killed since July 13. “The answer to Israel’s security is not the collective punishment of Palestinians,” was written underneath in bold, capital letters.
The United Nations had said Tuesday that 117,000 displaced people were sheltering in 80 of its schools, and that 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza had “no or very limited access to water or sanitation services.”
Wednesday morning, Gaza City was quieter than usual, but Israeli navy gunboats fired at the coastline all day. There were also a lot of shooting and explosions between Jabaliya, a refugee camp in the north of the strip, and Khan Younis, a city in the south. A flood of families headed toward Khan Younis from the nearby villages of Abasan al-Kabera, Abasan al-Asghira and Bani Suheila, and a local hospital was receiving many wounded people from those places.
Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, confirmed that most of the fighting remained in areas on the periphery of the Gaza Strip and in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya, where 13 soldiers and at least 60 Palestinians were killed Sunday and fierce combat has continued since. He said 30 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours, for a total of 210 — Palestinians put the number of fighters much lower — and that 28 underground tunnels with 68 entry points had been “exposed,” and six of the tunnels “demolished.”
“We are meeting resistance around the tunnels, they are clearly trying to protect these assets, as far as they’re concerned,” Colonel Lerner said. “Shejaiya has turned out to be a more substantial, fortified position, which explains, perhaps, why they are putting so much effort into defending it.”
A senior military intelligence official, in a separate morning conference call, told reporters that Israeli forces were encountering “quite advanced” weapons systems, including Russian-made Kornet and RPG-29 antitank weapons, which he said were probably smuggled through Iran and Syria. Hamas was also using snipers and improvised explosive devices, he said: booby traps in tunnels, suicide bombers in the streets, and explosives strapped to animals.
“The way of fighting is completely the way that some of your armies and forces saw in Iraq and Afghanistan and what we experienced in other places, Lebanon,” the official said. “Underground infrastructure, hiding, and as much as they can fighting from a standoff position, not face-to-face fighting, because in that case they know they have no chance.”
Fares Akram, Tyler Hicks and Sergey Ponomarev contributed reporting from Gaza, Michael R. Gordon from Tel Aviv, and Said Ghazali from Jerusalem.
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17) Palestinian Family Finds Missing Son in YouTube Video of His Shooting
[The video in this article is very hard to look at. An unarmed young man is murdered in cold blood. This horror continues just in order to keep Palestinians out of Israel because it is a "Jewish State" that deems that Palestinians are second-class people not deserving of life. A separate Jewish State is insane, criminal. All human beings should have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are inalienable rights that belong to all! For a free, democratic and secular Palestine! ...bw]
Open Source
After two days of
searching for a son they lost contact with during a rushed evacuation
from their home in Gaza City, one Palestinian family was surprised to
hear the young man’s voice, calling out for a missing cousin, in video
posted on YouTube on Monday by human rights activists.
A sister and a cousin of the missing 23-year-old, Salem Khaleel Shamaly, were horrified to see video of him lying on the ground in the ruined neighborhood they had fled, Shejaiya, wounded by an unseen sniper, according to activists from the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement who witnessed the incident and released the footage. As the man tried to get to his feet, two more shots rang out, and he stopped moving.
Joe Catron, a human rights activist who witnessed the shooting and documented the incident in photographs posted on Flickr, said in a telephone interview from Gaza that, although it seemed certain the young man would die without emergency medical treatment, the rest of the small party with which he was traveling had no choice but to retreat when shelling resumed in the area after the filming had stopped. The two people closest to the gunshot victim were convinced that he was dead by the time they left, Mr. Catron said.
Mr. Shamaly’s cousin, Mohammed Alqattawi, said in a telephone interview from Gaza on Tuesday that his family had tried to get rescue workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to retrieve the body, only to be told that the situation in Shejaiya remained too dangerous. At least 60 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed there during a fierce battle between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas militants.
The video was recorded by a local activist, Mohammed Abedullah, at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, during a two-hour ceasefire brokered by the Red Cross, when a group of volunteers and Palestinian rescue workers searched for survivors in Shejaiya. It had been under intense Israeli shelling since early that morning.
Mr. Abedullah’s video was edited by the International Solidarity Movement Palestine’s West Bank media office, which posted the video on YouTube with a headline assigning blame for the shooting to an unseen Israeli sniper. The activists provided 15 minutes 45 seconds of raw footage to The New York Times for review, and although it bears no apparent signs of manipulation, it also offers no clear evidence of the gunman’s identity.
The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment, but Israeli officials have defended the incursion into Shejaiya on the grounds that Hamas has “fortified” the area with a labyrinth of tunnels in civilian neighborhoods.
The video, showing the shooting of an apparently unarmed man, was described as a war crime by Ali Abunimah, the Palestinian-American founder of the Electronic Intifada. Human Rights Watch, which has accused both Israel and Hamas of violation of the laws of war, said last week that at least four recent attacks by the Israeli military that killed civilians in Gaza were apparently unlawful.
Mr. Alqattawi said that his cousin worked as a grocer with his father in Gaza City’s old market and had “absolutely nothing” to do with any militant brigade or the Hamas-led government of the territory.
Citing the images of Mr. Shamaly in the video, Mr. Alqattawi said that his cousin “clearly had nothing in his hand” except the cheap Nokia mobile phone he was using to track down his family.
A sister and a cousin of the missing 23-year-old, Salem Khaleel Shamaly, were horrified to see video of him lying on the ground in the ruined neighborhood they had fled, Shejaiya, wounded by an unseen sniper, according to activists from the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement who witnessed the incident and released the footage. As the man tried to get to his feet, two more shots rang out, and he stopped moving.
Joe Catron, a human rights activist who witnessed the shooting and documented the incident in photographs posted on Flickr, said in a telephone interview from Gaza that, although it seemed certain the young man would die without emergency medical treatment, the rest of the small party with which he was traveling had no choice but to retreat when shelling resumed in the area after the filming had stopped. The two people closest to the gunshot victim were convinced that he was dead by the time they left, Mr. Catron said.
Mr. Shamaly’s cousin, Mohammed Alqattawi, said in a telephone interview from Gaza on Tuesday that his family had tried to get rescue workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to retrieve the body, only to be told that the situation in Shejaiya remained too dangerous. At least 60 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed there during a fierce battle between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas militants.
The video was recorded by a local activist, Mohammed Abedullah, at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, during a two-hour ceasefire brokered by the Red Cross, when a group of volunteers and Palestinian rescue workers searched for survivors in Shejaiya. It had been under intense Israeli shelling since early that morning.
Mr. Abedullah’s video was edited by the International Solidarity Movement Palestine’s West Bank media office, which posted the video on YouTube with a headline assigning blame for the shooting to an unseen Israeli sniper. The activists provided 15 minutes 45 seconds of raw footage to The New York Times for review, and although it bears no apparent signs of manipulation, it also offers no clear evidence of the gunman’s identity.
The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment, but Israeli officials have defended the incursion into Shejaiya on the grounds that Hamas has “fortified” the area with a labyrinth of tunnels in civilian neighborhoods.
The video, showing the shooting of an apparently unarmed man, was described as a war crime by Ali Abunimah, the Palestinian-American founder of the Electronic Intifada. Human Rights Watch, which has accused both Israel and Hamas of violation of the laws of war, said last week that at least four recent attacks by the Israeli military that killed civilians in Gaza were apparently unlawful.
Mr. Alqattawi said that his cousin worked as a grocer with his father in Gaza City’s old market and had “absolutely nothing” to do with any militant brigade or the Hamas-led government of the territory.
Citing the images of Mr. Shamaly in the video, Mr. Alqattawi said that his cousin “clearly had nothing in his hand” except the cheap Nokia mobile phone he was using to track down his family.
18) U.S. Religious Leaders Embrace Cause of Immigrant Children
When the governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, said he did not want the migrants in his state, declaring, “We can’t accept every child in the world who has problems,” clergy in Des Moines held a prayer vigil at a United Methodist Church to demonstrate their desire to make room for the refugees.America’s response to the arrival of tens of thousands of migrant children, many of them fleeing violence and exploitation in Central America, has been symbolized by an angry pushback from citizens and local officials who have channeled their outrage over illegal immigration into opposition to proposed shelter sites. But around the nation and across the theological spectrum, religious leaders, as well as government officials citing religious beliefs, are offering a different reaction, saying the nation can and should welcome and tend to the migrants.
“We’re talking about whether we’re going to stand at the border and tell children who are fleeing a burning building to go back inside,” said Rabbi Asher Knight, of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, who said leaders of more than 100 faith organizations in his city met last week to discuss how to help. He said that in his own congregation some are comparing the flow of immigrant children to the Kindertransport, a rescue mission in the late 1930s that sent Jewish children from Nazi Germany to Britain for safekeeping.
“The question for us is: how do we want to be remembered, as yelling and screaming to go back, or as using the teachings of our traditions to have compassion and love and grace for the lives of God’s children?” Rabbi Knight said.
The backlash to the backlash is broad — from Unitarian Universalists and Quakers to evangelical Protestants. Among the most agitated are Catholic bishops, who have long allied with Republican politicians against abortion and same-sex marriage, and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, whose adherents tend to lean right.
“This is a crisis, and not simply a political crisis, but a moral one,” said Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. On Tuesday, Mr. Moore led a delegation of Southern Baptist officials to visit refugee children at detention centers in San Antonio and McAllen, Tex. In an interview after the visit, Mr. Moore said that “the anger directed toward vulnerable children is deplorable and disgusting” and added, “The first thing is to make sure we understand these are not issues, these are persons — these children are made in the image of God, and we ought to respond to them with compassion, not with fear.”
Also on Tuesday, a coalition of evangelical organizations sent a letter to members of Congress, opposing proposals for expedited deportation of the migrants. A similar letter is being prepared by a wide range of mainline denominations, including the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. The Catholic Church also opposes any effort to make it easier to deport children; last week, the archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis E. George, said he had offered facilities in his diocese to house some of the children, and on Monday, bishops in Dallas and Fort Worth called for lawyers to volunteer to represent the children at immigration proceedings.
“We have to put our money where our mouth is in this country,” said Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We tell other countries to protect human rights and accept refugees, but when we get a crisis on our border, we don’t know how to respond.”
Republicans have pushed for changes to immigration law in exchange for approving more funds to respond to the surge of migrants. And while President Obama says he has been open to some changes, many Democrats have opposed them, and Congress is now deadlocked.
Various religious groups are trying to assist the migrants directly — by offering food, shelter, and legal services. The Episcopal Church is providing hygeine and nutrition packets; the United Methodist Church is offering showers and clothing; the United Church of Christ has started a nationwide fund-raising appeal. Catholic Charities USA has opened seven “welcome centers” along the border.
“As a Christian organization, we feel like we have no choice — we are clearly called by scripture to respond to all children in need,” said Jesse Eaves, the senior adviser for child protection at World Vision, a large evangelical charity.
Attitudes among evangelicals are changing, particularly at the leadership level, according to the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
“I remember when my fellow evangelicals said deport them all, they’re here illegally, end of story, but the leadership now supports immigration reform,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “There’s still angst in the pews, but if they listen more to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John than to Rush Limbaugh, they’ll act with compassion towards these children.”
The Rev. Larry Snyder, the president of Catholic Charities USA, said the charitable work has not been welcomed in every community.
“Some city authorities are intimidated by the hate talk that you hear, and I even talk to some pastors who say they have to be careful because their parishioners aren’t behind us,” Father Snyder said. “If Jesus said anything, it was that your neighbor is everyone. I wish people would embrace that a little more than they do.”
Asked about the concerns religious organizations are expressing about unaccompanied minors, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, “Generous acts from average citizens don’t routinely generate headlines, but they accurately reflect the values of the vast majority of Americans." A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner did not respond to a request for comment.
Some political leaders have cited religious or moral arguments in offering support for the migrants. Last Friday, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts tearfully cited the Bible and declared, “I don’t know what good there is in faith if we can’t, and won’t, turn to it in moments of human need,” as he suggested that migrant children could be temporarily housed at military bases in his state. And on Monday, briefing reporters in Rome after meeting with a top Vatican official, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York praised Pope Francis’s support for the migrant children, and said, “I emphasize that New York City agrees with the position of the Holy See, that we have to embrace all immigrants.”
In Des Moines on Monday night, the mayor, Frank Cownie, attended the church vigil held by supporters of the migrant children. About 200 people gathered, from Catholic, Lutheran, United Methodist, Quaker, and United Church of Christ congregations, as they heard stories from immigrants and expressed a desire to change the way their state’s posture toward the migrants might be perceived. “I think for me the most important thing is to show that people in Iowa are compassionate and welcoming,” said the Rev. Alejandro Alfaro-Santiz, the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church.
Ann Klein contributed reporting from Des Moines.
19) U.S. Military Suicides Rise Slightly
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
20) Eyes on Gaza, Tensions Flare in Brooklyn
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
The worshipers, young and old, converged on mosques in Brooklyn this weekend, seeking olive green rugs on which to rest their knees, and pray. One week before the end of Ramadan, prayers rebounded off the walls with even more fervor than usual.
Then, Muslim leaders say, rancor that may have stemmed from the destruction in Gaza marred gatherings bookending two daily Ramadan fasts, reigniting tensions in a community where news of hostility in the Middle East tends to rattle both Muslims and Jews.
On Friday evening, outside a prayer gathering preceding the nightly meal, men in a white Lexus flung eggs at three elderly worshipers entering a mosque on Coney Island Avenue. “This is for your Allah!” the vandals shouted.Two days later, just as dawn broke on Sunday, 25 blocks away, a group of teenagers rolled past the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge seven times in a car, blaring with makeshift sirens and lights. “Burn to the ground!” they chanted as they waved Israeli flags. When the car stopped, a young worshiper retaliated by hurling a bottle, nicking one of the hecklers on his nose and hands.
The two incidents, which some viewed as reprisals of the kind that occasionally intrude on Ramadan festivities in New York, flustered some who have been glued to YouTube and their phones for word about friends and relatives in Gaza.
At a news conference on Tuesday at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, where a majority of the worshipers are Palestinian, religious leaders and elected officials condemned the acts, which they said seemed designed to provoke Muslims at a delicate moment.
“These people in this mosque are directly connected to what’s happening in Gaza every day,” said Linda Sarsour, a Muslim activist in Brooklyn. “These are people with raw emotions, and they feel even more outraged that you’d choose a time when we’re grieving family and watching relatives scattered on the streets to do something like this.”
Surveillance video of the incident in Bay Ridge is being reviewed by the Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, elected officials including State Senator Martin J. Golden said, though no one has been arrested. They said police officers have identified the teenagers involved.
Leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community traveled to the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge yesterday to apologize to leaders at the mosque, Ms. Sarsour said, adding, “We appreciate their visit here to the mosque to have this constructive dialogue.”
Monday night, members of the task force visited the mosque on Coney Island Avenue, the Thayba Islamic Center, but have not identified suspects, said Abdul Manaf, a spokesman.
The clamor this weekend was but one flare-up in a cycle of violence that often goes unnoticed, Mr. Manaf said. Worshipers at his mosque were also attacked earlier during Ramadan, he said, and anti-Muslim graffiti was discovered in Brooklyn this month.
“The most beautiful part is that none of them has retaliated,” Mr. Manaf said. “None of these guys are letting it trickle down to the youngsters.”
In one measure of the growing influence of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge in a neighborhood that was once largely Italian and Irish, elected officials and reporters thought to remove their shoes before entering the prayer room where the news conference was being held. Rabbis wearing skullcaps mingled with imams in flowing white robes as barefooted reporters jostled for space on the light green carpet, reminiscent of the olive trees that dot the hills of Palestine.
A week earlier, the same leaders had gathered for a cross-cultural Ramadan banquet and the launch of an anti-hate campaign.
“It really breaks my heart, being brought up in Borough Park, where there was such a numerous amount of Holocaust survivors,” said Douglas Jablon, a Jewish leader.
Visitors scattered as a midafternoon call to prayer sounded.
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21) What the Hobby Lobby Ruling Means for America
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/what-the-hobby-lobby-ruling-means-for-america.html?ref=business
Last month, as you’ve
probably heard, a closely divided Supreme Court ruled that corporations
with religious owners cannot be required to pay for insurance coverage
of contraception. The so-called Hobby Lobby decision, named for the
chain of craft stores that brought the case, has been both praised and
condemned for expanding religious rights and constraining Obamacare. But
beneath the political implications, the ruling has significant economic
undertones. It expands the right of corporations to be treated like
people, part of a trend that may be contributing to the rise of economic
inequality.
The notion that corporations are people is ridiculous on its face, but often true. Although Mitt Romney was mocked for saying it on the campaign trail a few summers ago, the U.S. Code, our national rule book, defines corporations as people in its very first sentence. And since the 19th century, the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are entitled to a wide range of constitutional protections. This was a business decision, and it was a good one. Incorporation encourages risk-taking: Investors are far more likely to put money into a business that can outlast its creators; managers, for their part, are more likely to take risks themselves because they owe nothing to the investors if they fail.
The rise of corporations, which developed more fully in the United States than in other industrializing nations, helped to make it the richest nation on earth. And economic historians have found that states where businesses could incorporate more easily tended to grow more quickly, aiding New York’s rise as a banking center and helping Pennsylvania’s coal industry to outstrip Virginia’s. The notion of corporate personhood still sounds weird, but we rely upon it constantly in our everyday lives. The corporation that published this column, for instance, is exercising its constitutional right to speak freely and to make contracts, taking money from some of you and giving a little to me.
Since the 1950s, however, the treatment of corporations as people has expanded beyond its original economic logic. According to Naomi Lamoreaux, a professor of economics and history at Yale University, the success of incorporation led states to broaden eligibility to advocacy groups, like the N.A.A.C.P. and the Congress of Racial Equality, which then became “the first corporations to convince the Court that they deserved a broader set of rights.” Ever since, the court has intermittently extended the logic of those rulings, and in 2010 it ruled that an advocacy group called Citizens United had the right to spend money on political advertising — and that every other corporation did, too. Last month, it added religious rights to the mix.
The basic justification is that corporations, owned by people, should have the same freedoms as people. And in many ways, of course, they already do. Chick-fil-A does not sell sandwiches on Sundays. Interstate Batteries tells prospective employees, “While it is not necessary to be a Christian to be employed, it is a part of the daily work life for Interstate team members.” In 1999, Omni Hotels said its new owner, a Christian, had made a “moral decision” to stop selling pay-per-view pornography.
But corporations, as F. Scott Fitzgerald might have put it, are not like you and me. Those special legal powers, which allow them to play a valuable role in the economy, can also give them the financial power to tilt the rules of the game by lobbying for particular legislation, among other things. “Those properties, so beneficial in the economic sphere, pose special dangers in the political sphere,” Justice William Rehnquist wrote in a dissenting opinion from a 1978 ruling that is a precursor to Citizens United. “Indeed, the States might reasonably fear that the corporation would use its economic power to obtain further benefits beyond those already bestowed.”The danger is not only that corporations can act at the expense of society, but also that the people who control them can act at the expense of their own shareholders, employees and customers. While the Hobby Lobby decision ostensibly addresses only a narrow set of circumstances — a corporation with relatively few owners, a religious objection to particular kinds of birth control — these sorts of limited rulings have a history of becoming more broadly cited as precedent over time. Also, the logic of this particular decision was so expansive and open-ended. “A corporation is simply a form of organization used by human beings to achieve desired ends,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote. “When rights, whether constitutional or statutory, are extended to corporations, the purpose is to protect the rights of these people.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued in her dissenting opinion that a corporation might object on religious grounds to paying for blood transfusions, vaccinations or antidepressants. Other scholars say the same logic could justify a right to privacy as a shield against regulatory scrutiny, or a right to bear arms.
Minority shareholders have little power to influence the choices that corporations make. Benjamin I. Sachs, a law professor at Harvard University, notes that while federal law lets union members prevent the use of their dues for political purposes, shareholders do not have similar rights. “If we’re going to say that collectives have speech rights, then we should treat unions and corporations the same,” Sachs told me. Employees are even more vulnerable. When companies like YUM! Brands, which owns KFC and Taco Bell, campaign against minimum-wage increases, they are effectively using the profits generated by their employees to limit the compensation of those same employees. And of course, some of Hobby Lobby’s 13,000 workers will now need to pay for contraception.
Shareholders can sell their shares, sure, and employees can find new jobs. But every increase in corporate rights is a potential limitation on the menu of available jobs and investments. “The idea that if you don’t like what the corporation is doing you should sell your stock, or find a different job, has a certain amount of appeal,” said Darrell A.H. Miller, a professor of law at Duke University. “But it also assumes that people are able to just fish and cut bait. Capital is easier to move around than your body and your family.”
If the court follows the logic of its Hobby Lobby decision in the decades to come, it’s not so hard to imagine a job market where people must interview employers about their religious and political views. Or where people who need to make a living may just feel compelled to accept a work environment increasingly shaped by their employers’ beliefs.
Binyamin Appelbaum is an economics reporter for The Times.
The notion that corporations are people is ridiculous on its face, but often true. Although Mitt Romney was mocked for saying it on the campaign trail a few summers ago, the U.S. Code, our national rule book, defines corporations as people in its very first sentence. And since the 19th century, the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are entitled to a wide range of constitutional protections. This was a business decision, and it was a good one. Incorporation encourages risk-taking: Investors are far more likely to put money into a business that can outlast its creators; managers, for their part, are more likely to take risks themselves because they owe nothing to the investors if they fail.
The rise of corporations, which developed more fully in the United States than in other industrializing nations, helped to make it the richest nation on earth. And economic historians have found that states where businesses could incorporate more easily tended to grow more quickly, aiding New York’s rise as a banking center and helping Pennsylvania’s coal industry to outstrip Virginia’s. The notion of corporate personhood still sounds weird, but we rely upon it constantly in our everyday lives. The corporation that published this column, for instance, is exercising its constitutional right to speak freely and to make contracts, taking money from some of you and giving a little to me.
Since the 1950s, however, the treatment of corporations as people has expanded beyond its original economic logic. According to Naomi Lamoreaux, a professor of economics and history at Yale University, the success of incorporation led states to broaden eligibility to advocacy groups, like the N.A.A.C.P. and the Congress of Racial Equality, which then became “the first corporations to convince the Court that they deserved a broader set of rights.” Ever since, the court has intermittently extended the logic of those rulings, and in 2010 it ruled that an advocacy group called Citizens United had the right to spend money on political advertising — and that every other corporation did, too. Last month, it added religious rights to the mix.
The basic justification is that corporations, owned by people, should have the same freedoms as people. And in many ways, of course, they already do. Chick-fil-A does not sell sandwiches on Sundays. Interstate Batteries tells prospective employees, “While it is not necessary to be a Christian to be employed, it is a part of the daily work life for Interstate team members.” In 1999, Omni Hotels said its new owner, a Christian, had made a “moral decision” to stop selling pay-per-view pornography.
But corporations, as F. Scott Fitzgerald might have put it, are not like you and me. Those special legal powers, which allow them to play a valuable role in the economy, can also give them the financial power to tilt the rules of the game by lobbying for particular legislation, among other things. “Those properties, so beneficial in the economic sphere, pose special dangers in the political sphere,” Justice William Rehnquist wrote in a dissenting opinion from a 1978 ruling that is a precursor to Citizens United. “Indeed, the States might reasonably fear that the corporation would use its economic power to obtain further benefits beyond those already bestowed.”The danger is not only that corporations can act at the expense of society, but also that the people who control them can act at the expense of their own shareholders, employees and customers. While the Hobby Lobby decision ostensibly addresses only a narrow set of circumstances — a corporation with relatively few owners, a religious objection to particular kinds of birth control — these sorts of limited rulings have a history of becoming more broadly cited as precedent over time. Also, the logic of this particular decision was so expansive and open-ended. “A corporation is simply a form of organization used by human beings to achieve desired ends,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote. “When rights, whether constitutional or statutory, are extended to corporations, the purpose is to protect the rights of these people.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued in her dissenting opinion that a corporation might object on religious grounds to paying for blood transfusions, vaccinations or antidepressants. Other scholars say the same logic could justify a right to privacy as a shield against regulatory scrutiny, or a right to bear arms.
Minority shareholders have little power to influence the choices that corporations make. Benjamin I. Sachs, a law professor at Harvard University, notes that while federal law lets union members prevent the use of their dues for political purposes, shareholders do not have similar rights. “If we’re going to say that collectives have speech rights, then we should treat unions and corporations the same,” Sachs told me. Employees are even more vulnerable. When companies like YUM! Brands, which owns KFC and Taco Bell, campaign against minimum-wage increases, they are effectively using the profits generated by their employees to limit the compensation of those same employees. And of course, some of Hobby Lobby’s 13,000 workers will now need to pay for contraception.
Shareholders can sell their shares, sure, and employees can find new jobs. But every increase in corporate rights is a potential limitation on the menu of available jobs and investments. “The idea that if you don’t like what the corporation is doing you should sell your stock, or find a different job, has a certain amount of appeal,” said Darrell A.H. Miller, a professor of law at Duke University. “But it also assumes that people are able to just fish and cut bait. Capital is easier to move around than your body and your family.”
If the court follows the logic of its Hobby Lobby decision in the decades to come, it’s not so hard to imagine a job market where people must interview employers about their religious and political views. Or where people who need to make a living may just feel compelled to accept a work environment increasingly shaped by their employers’ beliefs.
Binyamin Appelbaum is an economics reporter for The Times.
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
July 21, 2014 by Daniel Ellsberg
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a personal hero of mine, has recently filed to renew his asylum in Russia. Exiled thousands of miles from friends and family, he awaits his fate. He learned from the example of another top hero of mine, Chelsea Manning. Manning helped inspire his revelations that if he released his vital information while in this country he would have been held incommunicado in isolation as Chelsea was for over ten months—in Snowden’s case probably for the rest of his life. And facing comparable charges to Chelsea’s, he would have no more chance than Chelsea to have a truly fair trial—being prevented by the prosecution and judge (as I was, forty years ago) from even raising arguments of public interest or lack of harm in connection with his disclosures. Contrary to the hollow advice of Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, if he were to return to America he would not be able to “make his case” neither “in court,” nor “to the public” from a prison cell.I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Daniel Ellsberg
Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today!
Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Read
the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he
leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March
1, 2013
Alternet
The
statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his
formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications
for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications.
This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's
pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted
1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy
Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in
recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists
being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists
know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full
the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The
NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists –
please click here to support the NLG.
We
strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided
below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number
(888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy.
This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the
NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the
FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives,
friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are
contacted as well.
You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement
Encounters
What
Rights Do I Have?
Whether
or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to
answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth
Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or
workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the
government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your
right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a
non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your
political activities.
Standing
Up For Free Speech
The
government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to
disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such
as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that
you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and
other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting
organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and
steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each
person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression
easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up
to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a
"subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI
surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended
FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance,
infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76
COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of
several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to
expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the
settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the
Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What
if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What
if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do
not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions.
Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that
your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping
outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or
office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and
then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent
or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the
information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly
harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future.
Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more
opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not
intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do
I have to answer questions?
You
have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to
answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been
arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that
you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you
make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme
Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a
waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your
rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There
is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which
require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been
detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer
in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you
reside.
Do
I have to give my name?
As
above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to
give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and
refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to
your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name
could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do
I need a lawyer?
You
have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer
questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you
are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer
present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once
you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop
trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to
one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone
number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your
lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless
you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able
to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If
I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have
something to hide?
Anything
you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never
tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated
to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental
right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents
are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining
silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain
silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent
to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to
get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide
you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact
is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone
you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You
should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights
and refusing to answer questions.
Can
agents search my home or office?
You
do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have
and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order
that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a
warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But
you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal
defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can
legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has
the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of
your workspace without your permission.
What
if agents have a search warrant?
If
you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the
warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the
people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the
search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you
are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they
searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses
to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed
in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking
to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first.
(Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory
visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant
is present.)
Do
I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No.
If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should
affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to
remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain
silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a
lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What
if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even
if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other
questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert
that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What
if the police stop me on the street?
Ask
if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the
police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being
detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have
reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more
than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep
searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged
with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You
do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not
consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What
if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep
your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you
must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance.
You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds
to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may
separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one
has to answer any questions.
What
if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write
down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You
have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and
their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and
take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as
possible.
What
if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer
their questions?
A
grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about
information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a
subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they
will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are
threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What
if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand
jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are
not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and
you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked
to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the
witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used
grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political
organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena
in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and
those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping
("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean
that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG
National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The
government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This
practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and
disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal
grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically
important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who
understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your
political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained
to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of
others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political
activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and
investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony,
should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in
your testimony.
Frequently
prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is
prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges
against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the
burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the
immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything
you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by
suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In
front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right
to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which
strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of
being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front
of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can
consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What
if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If
you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held
in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for
the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular
grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a
total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your
cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare
instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What
If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the
purposes of this pamphlet.
?
Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers
waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you
before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without
reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
?
Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of
an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard
to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain
your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney.
If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration
lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be
barred from returning.
Based
on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the
following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may
change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to
non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying
to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do
I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or
signing any DHS papers?
Yes.
You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you
have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to
have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do
not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration
proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you
a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should
I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If
you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them
with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or
criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization
Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status
will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you
could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers
with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be.
Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am
I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If
you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card
holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your
immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for
more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and
you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems
with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by
the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will
answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to
information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider
refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If
I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing
before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes.
In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you
waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave
the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal
convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa
waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported
without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief
for you.
Can
I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes.
Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to
have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your
consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your
consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the
right to refuse help from your consulate.
What
happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing
is over?
You
could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be
barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk
to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What
should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always
talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers
view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of
your options to you.
What
Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT
NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches,
detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion,
sex or ethnicity.
If
I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop
and search me?
Yes.
Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can
my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or
after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes.
Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the
screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If
I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get
off the plane?
The
pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she
believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision
must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What
If I Am Under 18?
Do
I have to answer questions?
No.
Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing
to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some
states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What
if I am detained?
If
you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you
normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against
you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no
cost.
Do
I have the right to express political views at school?
Public
school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize
at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those
activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You
may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can
my backpack or locker be searched?
School
officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they
reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs
or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property,
but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This
booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if
you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should
also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be
prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG
National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free
Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write
to Mumia:
Mumia
Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI
Mahanoy
301
Morea Road
Frackville,
PA 17932
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August
21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE
MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"A
Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship"
book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle Is Still On To
FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO
Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN
COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable
doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle
Editorial
Monday,
December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death
penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death
row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT
ACTION APPEAL
-
From Amnesty International USA
17
December 2010
Click
here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To
learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For
a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Short
Video About Al-Awda's Work
The
following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's
work
since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown
on
Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l
Al-Awda
Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected
over
the past nine years.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support
Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda,
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial
support
to carry out its work.
To
submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and
follow the simple instructions.
Thank
you for your generosity!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some
of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/
or bauaw.org ...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Checkpoint - Jasiri X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6Y6LSjulU
Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NYC
RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
On
Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of
Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fukushima
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima,
Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in
north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the
Japanese government.
This
is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power
experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of
the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens
were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order
to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The
government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and
then
when
the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the
government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It
also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought
to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal
cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which
built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear
plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the
Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the
voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster
and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the
world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new
plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the
information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and
around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production
Of Labor Video Project
P.O.
Box 720027
San
Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For
information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1000
year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy
of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans
accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To
see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow
us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The
recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery.
But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts
the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They
came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst
the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that
Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one
man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that
despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm.
"How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon
accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions
the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is
very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means
relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands
on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A
Film By SBS
Distributed
By Journeyman Pictures
April
2012
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Photo
of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD
Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kids
being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate
locations" in
Terror
Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private
prisons,
a
recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack
Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought
Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common
forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing
and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep
News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan
One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For
more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Officers
Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By
ANDY NEWMAN
February
1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This
is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle
Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind
the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and
Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If
you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to
watch this
video
and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as
a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This
speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I
received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the
Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why
We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank
you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks
whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform
on WhiteHouse.gov.
The
We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline
to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar
matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies,
federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system
is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military
Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific
case raised in this petition...
That's
funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY
MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He
broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged,
let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President
to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a
crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama
on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential
remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser.
Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
Release
Bradley Manning
Almost
Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written
by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School
police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear
Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The
2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted
visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are the 99 Percent
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose
between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering
from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and
no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought
to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In
honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM
that began December 30, 1936:
According
to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't
one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story,"
it was
Roosevelt
who saved the day!):
"After
a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard.
But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed
at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone.
For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of
their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
-
Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But
those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at
the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike
was really won!
'With
babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH
CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE
OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU
Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded
by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU
Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland
called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and
file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the
interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For
more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For
further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production
of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC
Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19
November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC
Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police
PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police
pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC
Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy
Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE
BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot
by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy
Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy
Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were
actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE
STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20:
Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy
Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops
make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw
Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy
Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU
TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine
Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear
Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests
at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor
Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy
Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's
Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood,
Occupy Wall Street
By
adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live
arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One
World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When
injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan:
angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted
by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury
Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If
trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate
the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey,
Vice
President,
Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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