Tuesday, August 25, 2015

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015


Planning for Paris 2015
​
Join the Northern California Climate Mobilization

Join us to plan for a mass march and rally leading up to the Paris COP21* UN climate talks.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

7 pm – 9 pm at the Berkeley Unitarian Church

(Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists)

Connie Barbour Room, 1606 Bonita in Berkeley

(at Cedar and Bonita, between MLK, Jr and Shattuck)

Please join us for our next planning meeting aimed to coordinate a mass march and rally in Oakland from the Lake Merritt Amphitheater to Oakland City Hall on November 21st as a lead up to the Paris UN COP21 climate meeting (Nov 30 – Dec 11).  We are a network that has grown and expanded from the groups  who organized the Northern California People's Climate Rally in Oakland on September 21, 2014, in solidarity with the People's Climate March in New York.   Our point of unity are on the reverse side.   We need activists to join our committees:  outreach, media/messaging, and logistics.   And please reach out to your networks and invite other groups to this meeting to help build for climate action.

Contact us at info@norcalclimatemob.net and visit our website: www.norcalclimatemob.net

*COP21 is the 21st "Conference of the Parties" held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.

Challenging climate catastrophe the Northern California Climate Mobilization demands:

-A global agreement to implement dramatic and rapid reduction in global warming pollution

-Keep fossil fuels in the ground!

-100 percent clean, safe, renewable energy!

-End all fracking, tar sands mining and pipelines, offshore drilling, arctic drilling.

-Stop expansion of the extractive  economy. Wind, solar, geothermal power now.

-No coal exports or crude-by-rail bomb trains in Northern California.

            These conditions are necessary to create:

●      A world united to repair the ravages of climate change

Industrial countries and polluting corporations of the global north need to pay their ecological debt to society and to the global south by providing funding for developing countries and vulnerable communities worldwide to adapt to the impacts of climate change and convert to sustainable economies.

●      A world with an economy that works for people and the planet

Billions of dollars for energy efficiency and conservation. We need a just transition to a sustainable, demilitarized economy based on renewable energy, clean transportation, and jobs for all at union wages. Convert water-wasting, polluting factory farms to sustainable organic agriculture. End corporate personhood; end "money equals free speech"; end billionaire purchase of elections.

●      A demilitarized world with peace and social justice for everyone; where Black Lives Matter; where good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities belong to all

End all forms of oppression and discrimination. No to environmental racism and pollution of indigenous, low income, and frontline nations and communities. Respect all indigenous lands. No militarized police. No wars. No nuclear weapons or power.   A true ecological approach must integrate questions of justice to protect biodiversity, honor all life on earth and lift all people out of poverty.

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Starting this September, Rising Tide North America is calling for mass actions to shut down the economic and political systems threatening our survival.

Already, hundreds of thousands are streaming into the streets to fight back against climate chaos, capitalism and white supremacy.

This wave of resistance couldn't be more urgent. To stop climate chaos we need a phenomenal escalation in organizing, participation and tactical courage. We need a profound social transformation to uproot the institutions of capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, the systems that created the climate crisis. And we need to link arms with allies fighting for migrant justice, dignified work and pay, and an end to the criminalization and brutal policing of black and brown bodies.

We need to #FloodTheSystem.

In the lead up to the United Nations climate talks in Paris, in December, we will escalate local and regional resistance against systems that threaten our collective survival. Together, we will open alternative paths to the failing negotiations of political elites.

This is not another protest. It is a call for a massive economic and political intervention. It is a call to build the relationships needed to sustain our struggles for the long haul. To build popular power along the intersections of race, class, gender and ability. To collectively unleash our power and change everything.

The Story So Far

Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of people have flowed into the streets to fight back.

Fast food workers in over a hundred cities went on strike, with thousands arrested demanding $15 an hour and a union. Young people in Ferguson, protesting the murder of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, showed us the power of sustained action as they fought back against state violence for weeks, reinvigorating a national movement for Black liberation. Hundreds of thousands of climate activists marched at the People's Climate March in New York, and the next day Flood Wall Street shut down the heart of New York's financial district.

Across the country, and the world, powerful movements are using nonviolent direct action to to disrupt business as usual and demand lasting systemic change.

These moments show that broad mobilization and disruption are ways that we can transform our society. It is time we move beyond conventional strategies. Its time we connect across movements and #FloodTheSystem.

Rising Tide North America and its allies call on communities, networks, affinity groups and organizations across the continent to join together this Fall to rapidly escalate the pace and scale of the anti-capitalist climate justice movements.

We need to wash away the root causes of climate change -- capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and colonialism. These systems enable the domination of people and Earth. They place gains for the elite before the well being of our communities.

To build the scale of movements necessary to take on this challenge, we need everyone. Using sustained, coordinated direct action we can bring more people into a movement for radical social transformation than ever before.

The upcoming United Nations meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Paris (COP 21) at the end of the year provide us with an opportunity. Framed as climate negotiations they are really about capitalism and the corporate elites. We have an opportunity to focus the debate on capitalism itself as negotiators wedded to and benefiting from the status quo refuse to discuss the systems that drive the crisis. This is a natural moment to preemptively highlight community resistance and radical alternatives in advance of another colossal failure of international leadership. Through our combined action we can turn the failure of these critical talks into a moment in which the systemic nature of the crisis moves to the center and in which our movements begin to connect and collaborate.

In the past, the climate movement has repeatedly tried days of action and one-day marches. While these have built important relationships, they have not created the sustained movement swells we need. To lay the groundwork for exponential movement growth we are asking groups to convene Action Councils, like those forming in the Pacific Northwest, California, Montana, Northeast and elsewhere, with the intention of coming together to organize sustained actions beginning in late Summer, continuing through November and beyond.

With luck, waves of mobilizations breaking across the continent and world will build off each other to create a flood of resistance to fossil fuel extraction, capitalism and colonialism.

Vision

#FloodTheSystem invites the Rising Tide network, the larger climate justice movements, and other non-climate focused groups to create a flood of massive economic and political disruption of the systems that allow the climate and economic crisis to continue to escalate. This is not a simple call to action or day of action, it's a long-term process. We want to organize a series of actions that would:
  • Build a more robust anti-capitalist movement that clearly defines climate change as a symptom of capitalism. Specifically, we hope to support and catalyze regional organizing networks and relationships to challenge extreme energy infrastructure and the systems of oppression that enable it.
  • Build long term local, regional and continental networks that can continue to coordinate, build connections between movements, and escalate these fights in 2016 and beyond.
  • Begin to work closely with other movements through the analysis of where our struggles intersect and through a commitment to anti-oppressive organizing practices.
  • Share, implement and gain experience in innovative models of horizontal movement structures and mass democracy in organizing that will serve radical forces for the long haul.
  • Create a flood of energy within regions that inspires others to join in with organic, spontaneous actions and organizing. Regional blocks of escalating action are already planned that will lead into, and play off, each other. More emerge everyday.
  • Preemptively highlight community resistance and real alternatives to the fossil fuel economy ahead of the inevitable colossal failure by global elites at the United Nations climate negotiations in Paris.

Principles

#FloodTheSystem will organize and act according to the following principles.
  • Anti-capitalism/colonialism/racism/patriarchy - We see the climate crisis as a symptom of hierarchical social systems based upon domination and exploitation of lands, and predominately people of color. Addressing the crisis at its roots means joining with and supporting those who are fighting for liberation from these and other oppressive systems, and for their replacement with relations based upon equity, mutual aid, and ecological stewardship.
  • Grassroots Led, NGOs in Support Role - Non-profits and NGOs often function to co-opt and defuse resistance into reform-based avenues which are amenable to the social systems we are ultimately seeking to dismantle and replace. The priorities of this mobilization should be driven by groups grounded in and accountable to the communities most impacted by white supremacy, capitalism, and settler colonialism, with NGOs in a support role -- not the other way around.
  • Community-Based Alternatives - Corporations, nation-states, and multilateral institutions like the United Nations are integral pillars upholding global capitalism and colonialism. We see alternatives to extreme energy and the climate crisis arising out of social struggles which challenge and seek to replace these institutions and their logics. However, we recognize that there may be important defensive struggles within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, such as fighting the expansion of carbon markets or advancing state recognition of Indigenous land rights.


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Commute Kevin Cooper's Death Sentence

Sign the Petition:
https://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=40574&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_DeathPenalty~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1507EADP1&ea.url.id=432762&forwarded=true

Urge Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction, and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International opposes all executions, unconditionally.

"The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." - Judge William A. Fletcher, 2009 dissenting opinion on Kevin Cooper's case

Kevin Cooper has been on death row in California for more than thirty years.

In 1985, Cooper was convicted of the murder of a family and their house guest in Chino Hills. Sentenced to death, Cooper's trial took place in an atmosphere of racial hatred — for example, an effigy of a monkey in a noose with a sign reading "Hang the N*****!" was hung outside the venue of his preliminary hearing.

Take action to see that Kevin Cooper's death sentence is commuted immediately.

Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.

Following his trial, five federal judges said: "There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing."

Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.

Tell California authorities: The death penalty carries the risk of irrevocable error. Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted.

In 2009, Cooper came just eight hours shy of being executed for a crime that he may not have committed. Stand with me today in reminding the state of California that the death penalty is irreversible — Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted immediately.

In solidarity,

James Clark
Senior Death Penalty Campaigner
Amnesty International USA

News Updates

  • Death Row Stories
    Kevin Cooper's case will be the subject of a new episode of CNN's "Death Row Stories" airing on Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. PDT. The program will be repeated at 10 p.m. PDT. The episode, created by executive producers Robert Redford and Alex Gibney, will explore how Kevin Cooper was framed by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and District Attorney.Viewers on the east coast can see the program at 10 p.m. EDT and it will be rebroadcast at 1 a.m. EDT on July 27. Viewers in the Central Time zone can see it at 9 p.m. and midnight CDT. Viewers in the Mountain Time zone can see it at 8 p.m. and ll p.m MDT. It will be aired on CNN again during the following week and will also be able to be viewed on CNN's "Death Row Stories" website.
Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up
- from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org
 
Kevin Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.

Convicted in an atmosphere of racial hatred in San Bernardino County CA, Kevin Cooper remains under a threat of imminent execution in San Quentin.  He has never received a fair hearing on his claim of innocence.  In a dissenting opinion in 2009, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals signed a 82 page dissenting opinion that begins: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d 581.

There is significant evidence that exonerates Mr. Cooper and points toward other suspects:

  The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the murders took four minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a hatchet, a long knife, an ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How could a single person, in four or fewer minutes, wield three or four weapons, and inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two of whom were adults (including a 200 pound ex-marine) who had loaded weapons near their bedsides?

  The sole surviving victim of the murders, Josh Ryen, told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders that the culprits were "three white men." Josh Ryen repeated this statement in the days following the crimes. When he twice saw Mr. Cooper's picture on TV as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said "that's not the man who did it."

  Josh Ryen's description of the killers was corroborated by two witnesses who were driving near the Ryens' home the night of the murders. They reported seeing three white men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryens' car speeding away from the direction of the Ryens' home.

  These descriptions were corroborated by testimony of several employees and patrons of a bar close to the Ryens' home, who saw three white men enter the bar around midnight the night of the murders, two of whom were covered in blood, and one of whom was wearing coveralls.

  The identity of the real killers was further corroborated by a woman who, shortly after the murders were discovered, alerted the sheriff's department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also reported that her boyfriend had been wearing a tan t-shirt matching a tan t-shirt with Doug Ryen's blood on it recovered near the bar. She also reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one recovered near the scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in the days following the murders; it never reappeared; further, her sister saw that boyfriend and two other white men in a vehicle that could have been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.

Lacking a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a minimum security prison, stole the Ryens' car to escape to Mexico. But the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car. The prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder scene.

The jury in 1985 deliberated for seven days before finding Mr. Cooper guilty. One juror later said that if there had been one less piece of evidence, the jury would not have voted to convict.

The evidence the prosecution presented at trial tying Mr. Cooper to the crime scene has all been discredited…         (Continue reading this document at: http://www.savekevincooper.org/_new_freekevincooperdotorg/TEST/Scripts/DataLibraries/upload/KC_FactSheet_2014.pdf)

     This message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2015

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Free Albert Woodfox!

On June 8, 2015 a federal judge granted Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox unconditional release. Albert's conviction had already been overturned three times - most recently in 2013 - yet every time the state has appealed.

Today, Albert is still behind bars after spending four decades in cruel, unjust solitary confinement. He believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert King, were first placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their activism. All three men were members of the Black Panther Party. Together, they came to be known as the Angola 3.

It is time for the State of Louisiana to stop standing in the way of justice. Call on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to ensure Albert's cruel and unjust confinement is not his legacy. Learn more

http://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=35593&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1506EAIAR2&ea.url.id=414689&forwarded=true

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Amnesty for all those arrested demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

 

Amnesty for ALL those arrested
demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

Sign and distribute the petition to drop the charges!
Spread this effort with #Amnesty4Baltimore

"A riot is the language of the unheard"
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

An estimated 300 people have been arrested in Baltimore in the last two weeks. Many have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested include journalists, medics and legal observers.

One individual arrested for property destruction of a police vehicle is now facing life in prison and is being held on $500,000 bail. That's $150,000 more than the officer charged with the murder of Freddie Gray.  

The legal system has made it clear that they care more about broken windows than broken necks; more about a CVS than the lives of Baltimore's Black residents.

They showed no hesitation in arresting Baltimore's protesters and rebels, and sending in the National Guard, but took 19 days to put a single one of the killer cops in handcuffs. This was the outrageous double standard that led to the Baltimore Uprising.

 Sign the petition to drop the charges on all who have been arrested.

Petition to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Download PDF of Petition 

http://www.answercoalition.org/amnesty_for_all_those_arrested_demanding_justice_for_freddie_gray?utm_campaign=baltimore_amn1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=answercoalition

Amn3.pngMayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake
City Hall, Room 250,
100 North Holliday St.,
Baltimore, MD 21202

Dear Mayor Rawlings-Blake:

I stand in solidarity with those in Baltimore who are demanding that all charges be dropped against those who rose up against racism, police brutality, oppressive social conditions and delay of justice in the case of Freddie Gray. The whole world now recognizes that were it not for this powerful grassroots movement, in all its forms, there would be no indictment.

It is an outrage that peaceful protesters have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested include journalists and legal observers.

Even the youth who are charged with property destruction and looting should be given an amnesty. There is no reason a teenager -- provoked by racists and justifiably angry -- should be facing life in prison for breaking the windows of a police car.

The City of Baltimore should work to rectify the conditions that led to this Uprising, rather than criminalizing those who took action in response to those conditions. Drop the charges now!

Sincerely,
[add your name below]

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CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!

Sign the Petition:

http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=kos


Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:


Americans now owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. Eighty-six percent of that money is owed to the United States government. This is a crushing burden for more than 40 million Americans and their families.

I urge you to take immediate action to forgive all student debt, public and private.

American Federation of Teachers
Campaign for America's Future
Courage Campaign
Daily Kos
Democracy for America
LeftAction
Project Springboard
RH Reality Check
RootsAction
Student Debt Crisis
The Nation
Working Families


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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

B. ARTICLES IN FULL


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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS


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Action Alert!

Stand with Major Tillery


Dear Bonnie,

Listen to Mumia tell this story. Major Tillery stood up to the prison administration: he confronted them in no uncertain terms, noting that Mumia must get to the hospital in time- before he dies. SCI Mahanory Superintendent Kerestes told Major to mind his own business, to which Major replied 'Mumia is my business'.

Please join us in standing in solidarity with Major Tillery, who has been transferred and put in solitary confinement as punishment for demanding that Mumia receive medical care.

"Major is in the hole, not because of drugs, but because of something prison administrators hate and fear among all things: prisoner unity, prisoner solidarity."

- Mumia Abu-Jamal

1. Call prison officials to demand that Major Tillery be released from solitary confinement!

Superintendent Brenda Tritt, SCI Frackville
(570) 874-4516

Dept. Of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel
(717) 728-4109
 
  • State that you are calling about Major Tillery #AM9786, to demand he be released from the RHU and placed back in general population.
  • Inform them that you aware that he is in the hole and being denied medication in retaliation for speaking up for another prisoner.

2. Write Major a letter of solidarity:

Dear Major Tillery,

We honor your brave act of solidarity on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. You urged him to seek medical care and challenged the Prison Superintendent to protect his life. You helped save the life of a fellow prisoner and for that act of solidarity they are trying to bury you in the bowels of SCI Frackville under false charges. No matter how hard they try they cannot hide you under the weight of lies and intimidation. The power of the truth must come to light. Thank you Major Tillery for your courageous service. We salute you!
 
Major George Tillery
AM 9786 
SCI Frackville, 1111 Altamont Blvd, 
Frackville, PA 17931
 

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -Frederick Douglass

Mumia continues to transcend the prison walls, reaching out to us with his profound commentaries. Prison Radio is committed to amplifying Mumia's voice, getting him the medical care he needs to survive, and winning his freedom.


Mumia Abu-Jamal Has Hepatitis C:
Demand Treatment Now!



Mumia Abu-Jamal has Hepatitis C-- and the prison is refusing treatment. We are going back to court to demand critical care, and we can't do it without you. Will you support Mumia getting immediate treatment by giving $250, $100 or even $25 today? Every gift and action makes the difference for Mumia getting the care he needs. Thank you, Noelle.

The time to act is now.

Five months after being rushed to the hospital, new medical tests show that Mumia has active Hepatitis C. But prison officials are refusing to treat him for it.

With your help, that changes- today.

Mumia Abu-Jamal remains weak, ill, and in the prison infirmary.

Five months after being admitted to the hospital with lethal blood sugar levels and in renal failure, he continues to have a debilitating skin rashes, open wounds and swelling across his lower extremities. Because of our relentless demands for medical testing and treatment, we finally know the likely cause of his severe ailments: Hepatitis C.

But what is news to us is not news to his jailers. Prison officials have known that Mumia was Hep. C positive since 2012-- and have done nothing.

Even now that prison doctors know that Mumia's Hep. C is active -from testing they performed solely because we demanded it- they are refusing to provide treatment.

Today, we are going back to court to demand justice for our brother. 

Mumia's legal team (Bret Grote of Abolitionist Law Center and Robert Boyle of New York) is filing an amended lawsuit today, 'Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes', to include medical neglect and demand immediate treatment.

Meanwhile, Prison Radio is working tirelessly to make sure Mumia's legal and medical team have the necessary resources to get Mumia the critical care he needs.

And we can't do it without you.

We need your help today to ensure that the prison treats Mumia's Hepatitis C now!

The world came together for Mumia when he fell unconscious five months ago. Because of our international outcry for justice and the critical steps we took, Mumia is alive today.

Now, we need your help to get Mumia a treatment plan. Can you fight for Mumia's right to medical care by giving $100, $25 or $250 today?

Your donation will:
File an amended lawsuit 'Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes' to include medical neglect
Get Mumia a full Hepatitis C work up and treatment plan

Grant Mumia's consulting physicians access to directly examine Mumia 

Fuel a public campaign to bring Mumia back to health

Support the demand for treatment of Hepatitis C for all Pennsylvania prisoners
Please join us in demanding immediate medical treatment by giving $25, $100 or even $1,000 now. Every gift and action matters.

bit.ly/fight4mumia
I Demand Treatment NOW!
Luchando por la justicia y la libertad,
Noelle Hanrahan
Director, Prison Radio
To give by check:
PO Box 411074
San Francisco, CA
94141
Stock or legacy gifts:
Noelle Hanrahan
(415) 706 - 5222


Prison Radio has recorded Mumia and other political prisoners for over 25 years, and we are pulling out all the stops to keep these voices on the air. 

Please donate today to amplify prisoners' voices far and wide beyond the bars:

     Support Prison Radio: prisonradio.org/donate
     Defeat SB 508: bit.ly/defendfreespeech


Copyright © Prison Radio

www,prisonradio.org 415-706-5222

Our mailing address is:

Prison Radio PO Box 411074, SF CA 94141

http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=247585f092e945ff55b9a1bb2&id=e113d0b6d0&e=0107d76ccd

Donate Now

$35 is the yearly membership.

$50 will get you a beautiful tote bag (you can special order a yoga mat bag, just call us).

$100 will get the DVD "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary"

$300 will bring one essay to the airwaves.

$1000 (or $88.83 per month) will make you a member of our Prison Radio Freedom Circle. Take a moment and Support Prison Radio

Luchando por la justicia y la libertad,

Noelle Hanrahan, Director, Prison Radio

PRISON RADIO

P.O. Box 411074 San Francisco, CA 94141

www.prisonradio.org
info@prisonradio.org 415-706-5222


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The  Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Mobilizes Support Internationally:
No Execution by Medical Neglect!

International Unions Demand Decent Medical Treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal

June 2, 2015

Mumia Abu-Jamal was recently sent back to prison after having been hospitalized for the second time. There are some reports that his health is improving. He said to Suzanne Ross of the International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal that "if there had not been an international outcry about the lack of appropriate treatment, in fact AGAINST the 'treatment' that was bringing him so close to death, he was sure he would not be alive today".

In some good news, he was also told by the prison doctor that his biopsy results came back negative.
However, neither Mumia nor his wife, lawyers or consulting doctors have been seen the actual medical reports detailing his condition. The Department of Corrections refuses to hand over his medical records, claiming that they don't have to hand them over because there is litigation to have them released! Denying Mumia and his family his medical records is an outrage!
We would like to inform you about some recent actions taken by unions around the world on behalf of Mumia.

- Unite, the largest union in the UK, representing over 1.4 million members, wrote letters to Governor Tom Wolf, Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel and Legal Counsel Theron Perez protesting Mumia's treatment.

- The International Dockworkers Council, representing 90,000 dockworkers from affiliated unions around the world, wrote an appeal to the labor movement calling for action on behalf of Mumia.
- The Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific sent a protest letter to Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel.

We hope that you will continue to take action on behalf of Mumia. Please call and email Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel and demand the following:

1) Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man! He should be freed immediatel
2) Confirm what Mumia's medical condition is. Release his medical records to his family and lawyers!

3) Allow Mumia to be given medical treatment from a doctor of his choice. His doctor should be allowed to conduct an on-site medical examination, to communicate by phone with Mumia, and to communicate freely with prison medical staff.

4) Allow Mumia daily visits from his family, friends and lawyers!

5) Conduct an independent investigation of healthcare treatment inside the Pennsylvania prison system!DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, SECRETARY JOHN WETZEL 717 728 4109

We are also attaching a sample union resolution for you to use as a template. Please consider submitting it to your union and asking them to take action on behalf of Mumia. We would also be happy to work with you and make a presentation to your union or community group about his condition.

The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jam


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Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson
 
Updates from the New "Team Free Lorenzo Johnson":
Thank you all for your relentless effort in the fight against wrongful convictions and your determination to stand behind Lorenzo.

To garner even more support for Lorenzo Johnson, we have been hard at work updating the website and developing an even more formidable and dedicated team. Please take a moment to visit the new site here.

During the month of July, Lorenzo wrote two new articles for The Huffington Post titled "When Prosecutors Deny Justice for the Innocent," and "Hurry Up and Wait for Justice: The Struggle of Innocent Prisoners." In these articles, Lorenzo discusses the flaws in the criminal justice system, which he deems is a "serious problem in this country."

Lastly, Lorenzo has a message to you all.

A Letter from Lorenzo:

July 23, 2015
Dauphin County Prison
Harrisburg, PA

Dear Supporters,

I hope all is well with everyone and your families. As for myself, I'm still on my journey in pursuit of my vindication. Sorry for my website being shut down for a couple of weeks. It was being transferred to a new provider and management. I'm back and will do my best to keep everything up to speed with what's taking place.

I would like to thank ALL of my loyal supporters in the U.S. and in the MANY different counties that have signed on to support my innocence. Thanks for all of the letters, emails, photos, etc. Like I always say, I get energy to carry on and inspiration hearing form you, please stay engaged in my struggle.

As of this moment, nothing has changed, but – the continued delay tactics are constantly being used by my prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General William Stoycos. With the mounting of evidence that supports my innocence and police and prosecution misconduct claims that is steadily piling up, you would think that I would be having a couple of evidentiary hearings on my actual innocence appeal that have been pending since August 5, 2013.

At the time of this writing, I've been moved from SCI-Mahanoy to Dauphin County Prison and locked down for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day. In the 20 minutes I get to come out, I get to take a shower and make a short call. Prosecutor Stoycos had me moved so I can be a witness in his attempt to have my codefendant Corey Walker's attorney removed from representing him. How dare he call into question an attorney who is seeking justice for her client, when prosecutor Stoycos himself violated multiple constitutional rights of mine and Mr. Walker, that led to us being in prison for 20 years and counting.

Prosecutor Stoycos is continuously abusing his power and his endless resources he has at his disposal. He is not tough on crime, he's tough on Innocent Prisoners. Prosecutor Stoycos is doing everything in his power to prevent justice from taking place. I encourage everyone to continue to speak out against my nightmare, invite others to get involved by going to my website and signing my Freedom Petition and whatever else they're willing to do.

On a positive note, I just enrolled in warehouse management trade and started on July 13th. Unfortunately, you're only allowed to miss a couple of days and Prosecutor Stoycos had me temporarily transferred on July 14th … It's extremely hard on Lifers to get into these trades due to the fact that Lifers are placed at the back of the list of ALL vocational classes. I try to further my education every chance I get, so when I do come home, I will be certified in different work.

The month of the hearing has come and left, without me being brought to the courthouse … I'm one of MANY innocent prisoners who endures this non-stop madness in our pursuit of Justice and Freedom. Now that my webpage is almost caught up to speed, I promise prompt updates and as everyone knows that contacted me directly, I personally reply to those in the states and out of the country. For those who can make a financial contribution, everything counts. Take care and let's continue to fight until we achieve Freedom, Justice, and Equality for all innocent prisoners.

"The Pain Within"

Free the Innocent
Lorenzo "Cat" Johnson

[Note: Lorenzo has since been transferred back to SCI Mahanoy and can be reached at his usual address.]

Thank you all for reading this message and please take the time to visit the new website and contribute to Lorenzo's campaign for freedom!

Write: Lorenzo Johnson
            DF 1036
            SCI Mahanoy
            301 Morea Rd.
            Frackville, PA 17932

 Email: Through JPay using the code:
              Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
                                     or
              Directly at LorenzoJohnson17932@gmail.com

Have a wonderful day!
- The Team to Free Lorenzo Johnson


freelorenzojohnson.org

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 Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!

Click HERE to view in browser

http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/freepinkney-1-28-15/


On December 15, 2014 the Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan was thrown into prison for 2.5 to 10 years. This 66-year-old leading African American activist was tried and convicted in front of an all-white jury and racist white judge and prosecutor for supposedly altering 5 dates on a recall petition against the mayor of Benton Harbor.

The prosecutor, with the judge's approval, repeatedly told the jury "you don't need evidence to convict Mr. Pinkney." And ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WAS EVER PRESENTED THAT TIED REV. PINKNEY TO THE 'ALTERED' PETITIONS. Rev. Pinkney was immediately led away in handcuffs and thrown into Jackson Prison.

This is an outrageous charge. It is an outrageous conviction. It is an even more outrageous sentence! It must be appealed.

With your help supporters need to raise $20,000 for Rev. Pinkney's appeal.

Checks can be made out to BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization). This is the organization founded by Rev. Pinkney.  Mail them to: Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022.

Donations can be accepted on-line at bhbanco.org – press the donate button.

For information on the decade long campaign to destroy Rev. Pinkney go to bhbanco.org and workers.org(search "Pinkney").

We urge your support to the efforts to Free Rev. Pinkney!Ramsey Clark – Former U.S. attorney general,
Cynthia McKinney – Former member of U.S. Congress,
Lynne Stewart – Former political prisoner and human rights attorney
Ralph Poynter – New Abolitionist Movement,
Abayomi Azikiwe – Editor, Pan-African News Wire<
Larry Holmes – Peoples Power Assembly,
David Sole – Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
Sara Flounders – International Action Center

MESSAGE FROM REV. PINKNEY

I am now in Marquette prison over 15 hours from wife and family, sitting in prison for a crime that was never committed. Judge Schrock and Mike Sepic both admitted there was no evidence against me but now I sit in prison facing 30 months. Schrock actually stated that he wanted to make an example out of me. (to scare Benton Harbor residents even more...) ONLY IN AMERICA. I now have an army to help fight Berrien County. When I arrived at Jackson state prison on Dec. 15, I met several hundred people from Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. Some people recognized me. There was an outstanding amount of support given by the prison inmates. When I was transported to Marquette Prison it took 2 days. The prisoners knew who I was. One of the guards looked me up on the internet and said, "who would believe Berrien County is this racist."

Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney

Michigan political prisoner the Rev. Edward Pinkney is a victim of racist injustice. He was sentenced to 30 months to 10 years for supposedly changing the dates on 5 signatures on a petition to recall Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower.

No material or circumstantial evidence was presented at the trial that would implicate Pinkney in the purported5 felonies. Many believe that Pinkney, a Berrien County activist and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), is being punished by local authorities for opposing the corporate plans of Whirlpool Corp, headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

In 2012, Pinkney and BANCO led an "Occupy the PGA [Professional Golfers' Association of America]" demonstration against a world-renowned golf tournament held at the newly created Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The course was carved out of Jean Klock Park, which had been donated to the city of Benton Harbor decades ago.

Berrien County officials were determined to defeat the recall campaign against Mayor Hightower, who opposed a program that would have taxed local corporations in order to create jobs and improve conditions in Benton Harbor, a majority African-American municipality. Like other Michigan cities, it has been devastated by widespread poverty and unemployment.

The Benton Harbor corporate power structure has used similar fraudulent charges to stop past efforts to recall or vote out of office the racist white officials, from mayor, judges, prosecutors in a majority Black city. Rev Pinkney who always quotes scripture, as many Christian ministers do, was even convicted for quoting scripture in a newspaper column. This outrageous conviction was overturned on appeal. We must do this again!

To sign the petition in support of the Rev. Edward Pinkney, log on to: tinyurl.com/ps4lwyn.

Contributions for Rev. Pinkney's defense can be sent to BANCO at Mrs Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022

Or you can donate on-line at bhbanco.org.

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COURAGE TO RESIST

 http://couragetoresist.org/

New Action--write letters to DoD officials requesting clemency for Chelsea!

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning's clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense.

Please write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks' whistle-blower former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning's release from military prison.

It is important that each of these authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in Manning's outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this stage.

Take action TODAY – Write letters supporting Chelsea's clemency petition to the following DoD authorities:

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

101 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-0101

The Judge Advocate General

2200 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-2200

Army Clemency and Parole Board

251 18th St, Suite 385

Arlington, VA 22202-3532

Directorate of Inmate Administration

Attn: Boards Branch

U.S. Disciplinary Barracks

1301 N. Warehouse Road

Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304

Suggestions for letters send to DoD officials:

The letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and especially why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning's sentence is reduced.  The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be unlikely to help.

A suggested message: "Chelsea Manning has been punished enough for violating military regulations in the course of being true to her conscience.  I urge you to use your authorityto reduce Pvt. Manning's sentence to time served."  Beyond that general message, feel free to personalize the details as to why you believe Chelsea deserves clemency.

Consider composing your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself (here are templates and some tips for doing that).

A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above

This clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning's upcoming appeal before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning's new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the prosecution's—and the trial judge's—misconduct during last year's trial at Ft. Meade, Maryland.

Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees at this critical stage!


Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org


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B. ARTICLES IN FULL


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1) Israel Launches 2nd Round of Airstrikes in Syria
By DIAA HADID

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Israeli military launched a second round of airstrikes in Syria on Friday morning, killing all of the passengers traveling in a vehicle and intensifying the most serious conflict in the area in months.

The Israeli military said it was pursuing militants who had fired at Israeli-controlled areas on Thursday, saying in a statement that the air force had “targeted part of the terror cell responsible for the rocket fire at northern Israel on Thursday” but providing no further information.

Sana, the official Syrian news agency, said an Israeli drone strike hit a civilian vehicle near a marketplace in Al Koum, a village in the Quneitra area on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights.

Israel repeated its claim on Friday that Iran was to blame for the rocket fire, seeking to use the attack as further evidence that the United States Congress should reject the nuclear deal reached last month between world powers and Iran.

Specifically, Israeli officials said an Iranian commander had supervised militants of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and accused the organization of firing four rockets toward the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Upper Galilee on Thursday. There were no casualties in that attack.

The Israeli news media reported that its airstrike had hit a military vehicle and killed the passengers, either four or five people, less than 10 miles from the Israeli-controlled frontier.

That account was supported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group in Britain, which said that the vehicle had been carrying five progovernment militia fighters who belonged to a group known as the National Defense Forces, but provided no further information.

In statements made to the Palestinian news media, Daoud Shihab, the chief spokesman for Islamic Jihad, denied any involvement in the rocket attack. Mr. Shihab said the militant wing of Islamic Jihad operated “inside occupied Palestine” — a reference to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials.

After the airstrike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had “no intention of escalating events, but our policy remains unchanged.”

“Those countries that hasten to embrace Iran must realize that it was an Iranian commander who provided protection and direction for the cell that shot at Israel,” he said.

Dore Gold, the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said in a telephone interview that “it is untenable that Iran can argue it is in a diplomatic process in the West, while its forces continue to wage wars of subversion and terror across the Middle East.”

“Iran derives legitimacy from the nuclear agreement,” Mr. Gold said. “There’s a problem here: almost like an inconsistency between Iran’s stated position of being a diplomatic partner and the continuing warfare.”

After the rocket fire on Thursday, Israeli aircraft conducted retaliatory strikes against more than a dozen Syrian military posts. The Observatory said on Friday that two soldiers had been killed in those strikes.

An Israeli military official said that the rocket fire on Thursday had been “clearly intentional” and not errant fire that had come across Israeli-held territory.

In a sign of protest lodged with the world powers that negotiated the nuclear agreement, Israeli officials said in a statement that they had “credible information” that the attack was carried out by Islamic Jihad operatives.

The statement said that the attack was “facilitated and directed” by Saeed Izaadhi, describing him as an Iranian operative “who heads the Palestinian unit” of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran.

Israel seized parts of the mountainous Golan Heights plateau from Syria in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, but the frontier area had been largely peaceful until civil war broke out there in 2011.

“We know that the situation along the border won’t be what it was in the past,” Eli Malka, the Golan Regional Council chairman, said in a radio interview after the strikes.

“This is now a hostile border,” Mr. Malka said in the interview. “We realize that things have changed, and we have prepared. We’ve prepared in many ways. In fortifications, in building the fortitude of the residents, in improving the interface between us and the army.”

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem; Carol Sutherland from Moshav Ben Ami, Israel; and Hwaida Saad from Beirut.


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2) Migrant Influx Prompts Macedonia, Britain and France to Increase Security
By and

BERLIN — Europe’s migration crisis took on new dimensions Thursday as at least three countries announced added security measures to address the biggest movement of refugees and migrants seen here since the aftermath of World War II.

The sheer numbers of migrants are now clogging critical choke points across Europe. In July alone, 107,500 migrants entered the 28-nation European Union, according to Frontex, the bloc’s border management agency. That was more than three times the number in the same month last year.

The latest country to be overwhelmed by the surge was the tiny Balkan nation of Macedonia. It declared a state of emergency on Thursday and said it would deploy the military to restore calm to its southern border with Greece and its northern frontier with Serbia.Many of the refugees are fleeing the wars in Iraq and Syria and had recently made their way from Turkey to Greek islands. They have flooded into Macedonia — almost 42,000 in the past two months according to the nation’s Ministry of Interior — as they head north to seek asylum in wealthy countries like Austria, Germany, Britain or Sweden.

Migrants in Macedonia told reporters there this week that they were especially anxious to move now that Hungary — the transit land north of Serbia on the long route to Germany — has decided to build a fence to keep migrants out.

Nongovernmental groups in Macedonia criticized the government’s move as a step that would again expose migrants to human traffickers, or tempt them into dangerous paths like walking along rails at night.

At the same time, the British and French authorities announced that they would set up a new “command and control center” in Calais, the French port at the mouth of the Channel Tunnel, where several thousand migrants live in a makeshift camp, awaiting the chance to smuggle themselves to Britain.

While the problems at Calais have disrupted truck drivers and travelers, the images of chaos on the border between two of Europe’s richest nations have highlighted the inability of Europe to deal with the crisis. Indeed, Calais is just one prominent outpost of a situation that German officials have begun to characterize less as an emergency than as the Continent’s new normal.

Europe must act, German leaders say, to distribute refugees from war and persecution more evenly among European nations, while so called “economic migrants” — mostly from impoverished Balkan countries, will be sent home from Germany because they do not qualify for asylum.

Yet so far policy makers have struggled to produce a coherent collective response to the challenge, and efforts to agree on quotas for European Union countries to accept refugees have achieved only limited success.

Hours after meeting in Calais with his British counterpart, the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, traveled to Berlin for hurriedly scheduled talks with his German colleague, Thomas de Maizière, who on Wednesday announced that Germany, Europe’s No. 1 power, expects up to 800,000 asylum seekers this year.

Germany has grappled with a rising number of attacks on refugee shelters and arriving migrants. On Thursday, media were full of reports about fighting that broke out at an overcrowded shelter in Suhl in the central German state of Thuringia, injuring at least 17 people, including police officers, refugees and bystanders. About 1,800 people are said to be crowded into a space designed for 1,200.

In Macedonia, reports from the border with Greece on Thursday evening suggested that about 1,500 migrants — many of them Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans — were stranded between the Greek and Macedonian borders.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of Macedonia said that the state of emergency was a “temporary mechanism” intended to control the flow of migrants “so that they will have more humane transport through Macedonia.”

Just two months ago, the authorities in Macedonia introduced measures to document migrants. At that point, there were 500 to 600 arrivals each day, he said. Now, the number has climbed to 2,500 a day and is likely to continue to increase to 3,000 to 4,000 a day, he said.

“The country does not have the capacity to help so many people, so we had to intervene,” Mr. Gruevski said, noting that trains designed to accommodate 350 people have been arriving with 650 onboard.

The British-French agreement on Thursday is intended to halt the acts of desperation seen this summer around Calais, typical of countless others across the Continent. Migrants in the French port have tried to break into the Channel Tunnel and stow away on cars, trucks and trains.

Some efforts to make the crossing have proved fatal, and one migrant even walked most of the 31-mile tunnel, where he avoided being hit by trains but was arrested as he approached Folkestone in Britain.

Under plans announced after talks in France, British police and border protection forces will work with their French counterparts at a new “command and control center” in Calais. The new body will be led by two senior officers, one British and one French, and will try to target those organizing human trafficking.

The British home secretary, Theresa May, said that the situation in Calais was “the result of a global migration challenge,” and promised to work with France to ensure that “the rest of the European Union and the transit and source countries from which migrants are coming are also playing their full part in solving this problem.”

Under the new agreement, Britain will now spend more on reinforcing the perimeter of the Eurotunnel railhead with tougher fencing, CCTV, floodlighting and infrared detection technology.

Extra search teams, including detection dogs, will be deployed, more mobile French policing units will be added and a security audit will be conducted.

Although some British politicians have criticized France for losing control in Calais, Britain’s government has been careful not to do so. Under reciprocal arrangements, British officials conduct passport checks on those crossing the Channel on French soil, before their journey, making them reliant on French cooperation.

French officials argue that migrants are attracted to Britain because of its use of the English language, its growing economy and the fact that, because it does not use identity cards, it may be easier to live illegally there.

Meanwhile, the Council of Europe, a human rights organization of 47 member states, criticized Slovakia for saying that it would refuse to accept Muslim migrants.

“Refusing refugees on the grounds of their religion would be a blatant discrimination,” said the Council’s chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, in a statement.

Alison Smale reported from Berlin, and Stephen Castle from London. Aleksandar Dimishkovski contributed reporting from Skopje, Macedonia, and Lilia Blaise from Paris.




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3) Seventeen Transgender Killings Contrast With Growing Visibility
By KATIE ROGERS

The brutal death of a 36-year-old transgender woman in Kansas City, Mo., is the latest in what activists are calling an alarming rise in anti-transgender violence.

Tamara Dominguez, who was reported to have migrated from Mexico to escape discrimination, was hit by a vehicle early Saturday and run over several times, making her the 17th transgender person reported killed this year, according to data compiled by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.

Most of the victims have been black or Hispanic.

By comparison, 12 killings of transgender people were recorded by the coalition in 2014, said Sue Yacka, a spokeswoman.

Transgender activists believe the killing in Kansas City was motivated by Ms. Dominguez’s gender identity. Randall Jenson, a representative for the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project who has been working with Ms. Dominguez’s family, characterized her death as an “intentional act” meant to send a message.

And those are just the killings that are reported, said Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. Mr. Hayashi said that recent media coverage had brought increased visibility to each victim, but that the killings reflected an “ongoing” state of crisis for the community.

Activists say transgender women of color, who are often poor, are most at risk of violence.

Hoping to increase visibility for the killings, transgender activists and allies are sharing pictures of victims as their deaths are reported.

Also alarming to advocates is that several of the 17 people killed have been slain just this summer. Other recent cases include India Clarke, a 25-year-old black transgender woman who was found dead in July from a gunshot in Tampa Bay, Fla.; Kenton Haggard, a 66-year-old who activists say was transgender, and who was killed in a stabbing in July in Fresno, Calif., that was caught on video; and Kandis Capri, a 35-year-old transgender woman, who was shot and killed in Phoenix on Aug. 11.

Laverne Cox, the transgender actress, said in a statement on Thursday that a lack of national outrage over the killings “adds insult to injury.”

She said transgender women of color exist at the “intersection of multiple forms of violence which are also about race, misogyny, poverty and a system that reinforces the fallacy that we shouldn’t exist and don’t exist.”

A suspect was arrested and charged with Ms. Clarke’s killing after the police found DNA evidence and a condom that contained fluid in her car. There have been no arrests in Ms. Capri’s death, according to ABC 15 in Phoenix, but her family is seeking a hate crime investigation. And authorities say there is no update in Kenton Haggard’s case.

Mr. Hayashi said that transgender people faced a system of discrimination — which includes lack of access to health care, education, housing and job resources — that can result in people who put themselves in “really vulnerable positions as far as the violence that we’re seeing.”

The organization receives about 2,500 calls a year from transgender people and their families seeking assistance, Mr. Hayashi said. The demand often outweighs the resources.

Mr. Jenson, of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, said that lengthy police investigations, sometimes carried out in a way that activists feel lack dignity and thoroughness, had sometimes led to tension between officers and the communities they serve.

“We get told by agencies that we’re hindering the process or hurting our communities because they don’t understand hate crimes or how it could work,” Mr. Jenson said. “It’s not a community’s job to have to educate themselves on such a nuanced system and hate crime laws that do not actually work.”

Tension has also occurred over how the gender of a person who either publicly or privately identifies as transgender is reflected in a police report: In Tampa, Kansas City and Fresno, the police referred to Ms. Clarke, Ms. Dominguez and Kenton Haggard by their legal — male — names, which offends activists. And questions have been raised, particularly in the case of Kenton Haggard, over whether the victim publicly identified as transgender at all, though activists include the killing in the summer’s count of fatalities.

Lt. Joe Gomez, the public information officer for the Fresno police, said gender was not a factor in efforts to investigate the death. On Thursday, he said that criticism of the police had been “blown out of proportion.”

“It’s just not an issue in this case,” he said. “We are hoping the community comes forward with more information on the suspect.”



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4) Request for Grand Jury Records in Eric Garner Case Is Rejected
By

A Staten Island judge on Thursday rejected a request from the Civilian Complaint Review Board for grand jury records related to the case of Eric Garner, who died last year after a police officer used a chokehold while trying to arrest him on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes.

Justice William E. Garnett of State Supreme Court wrote in a decision that the review board had not demonstrated a compelling need for the records and that the disclosure would set a bad precedent.

The review board said the records were needed to review police actions, adding that efforts to obtain evidence from the police had been unsuccessful. The Staten Island district attorney’s office had opposed the request, saying that the board lacked standing to obtain the records, which are traditionally kept secret, and that their disclosure would undermine the ability of future grand juries to reach decisions free of outside influences.In the spring, Justice Garnett cited similar findings while ruling in a separate case against other plaintiffs who had also sought the records, including The New York Post, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York City public advocate, Letitia James.

On Tuesday, the civil liberties union asked the State Court of Appeals to review the decision to keep the records secret, writing that a “lack of accountability for Eric Garner’s death” had shaken confidence in the grand jury system and prompted conflicting policy proposals.

Richard D. Emery, the chairman of the review board, said that he had recently received the complete cooperation of the Police Department but that independent grand jury records were “obviously critical for a fair analysis” of the Garner case.

He said he would seek an expedited appeal.


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5)Dinner and Deception
Serving elaborate meals to the
super-rich left me feeling empty.
By EDWARD FRAME

IT’S 4:25 p.m. I make my way through the kitchen, past the prep cooks, up to the locker room on the second floor. Getting dressed takes 10 minutes. That leaves 20 to get “family meal” before the porters break everything down. At 4:55, I’m ready. Lineup is in five minutes — “live at five.” I double-check my uniform, an expensive-looking suit issued by the restaurant, before I join the rest of the wait staff downstairs.

Lineup is our final meeting before service. The managers report on menu changes and our ranking on the world’s top restaurants list. Sometimes they test us. “Where did Chef get his first Michelin star?” “What kind of stone is the floor made of?” But tonight we just taste the new wine. A classic Burgundy: red fruit, rose petal, underripe cherry; med-high acid, soft tannins. It’ll pair well with the pork.

The dining room has four “stations,” each with six or seven tables overseen by a four-person service team — captain, sommelier, server and assistant server. As a captain, I’m in charge of my team. It took me eight months to get promoted to this job; some captains waited for years.

Six food runners also roam the floor, along with three managers. Two expediters — the “expos” — stay in the kitchen to decide when food leaves and where it goes. At most other three-Michelin-star restaurants in New York City, the system is much the same.

Doors open at 5:30. Tonight, the book says 152 covers. About 120 used to be normal, but the owners are opening a new place next month and need cash. So tonight it’s 152. The service director calls this an “opportunity for more guests to experience the restaurant.” But this is spin, and everyone knows it. Thirty-two more covers means we need to turn eight more tables, two more in my section, which means I’ll be taking a cab home at 3 a.m., not 2.

My team is good. Not perfect, good. The sommelier knows his wine, but on busy nights gets buried fast. I can rely on my server. My assistant server is great. Every captain knows that an assistant server can make or break you. “Crumb, clear, water” — that’s all an assistant server technically does, but a good one keeps things moving in your section.

First table gets seated at 5:31. I print and scan the chit, a digital dossier we keep on every guest, new or old. Who are these people? V.I.P.? (“Soigné” is the preferred term.) It’s the first seating, so I know they’re not, but I check anyway. Have they been here before? Do they have a water preference? Food allergies? Likes? Dislikes? Spend big on wine?

I announce my presence on the greet: a flourish, a hand gesture, a pressing of the palms, anything to signal that everyone at the table needs to pay attention, that I’ll be dictating the pace of the experience tonight, not the other way around. “Good evening.” Big smile. “Do you still prefer sparkling water? Or would you like something else this time?” The assistant server stands by the credenza next to the Champagne bucket, waiting. A slight wiggle of my fingers behind my back means bubbles; a slashing motion, still; a twist of the fist, ice water. Like magic, he appears with the correct selection. “May I take a moment to explain the menu?”

Captains compete for the briefest menu spiel possible. The key is to eliminate unnecessary choices; most people just want to be told what to do. At 5:35 I’m back at the table for the order. I memorize every guest’s selection; writing things down would suggest a “transactional” relationship, something I want to avoid. Each guest should feel special. A minute later I dictate the orders to the server, who transcribes and then places them while I stay on the floor.

In an ideal service, the captain never leaves the floor. After that, it’s all about table maintenance until I drop the check with some complimentary cognac in three or five hours, depending on whether they go four-course or tasting. I’ll do this 13 more times tonight.

Marx might have called this kind of work “estranged labor,” but the phrase isn’t quite right. My experience working in fine dining was marked by hard, repetitive and often meaningless work. But it wasn’t completely “estranging,” not at first. To the contrary, I found that hard, repetitive work, however “estranged” in some abstract or theoretical sense, could be incredibly affirming. Executing the same tasks with machine-like precision over and over and over again, like one of Adam Smith’s nail-cutters, offered a special kind of enjoyment. There was no reflection, no question about what my job required of me, and I could indulge, for hours, in the straightforward immediacy of action.

Next to a doorway leading into the dining room, a sign in the kitchen summed up the job in the form of a commandment: “Make it nice.” Make it nice means you hold yourself accountable to every detail. It means everything in the restaurant must appear perfect — the position of the candle votives, the part in your hair. Everything matters.

Most of us internalized this mantra quickly. One of my first assignments as a food-runner was to polish glassware. I worked in a small alcove, connected to the dishwasher. Glass racks came out, I wiped away any watermarks or smudges, and then, just as I finished one rack, another appeared. This went on for hours, like some kind of Sisyphean fable revised for the hospitality industry. By hour two my fingers hurt and my back ached. But I couldn’t stop. The racks kept coming. Slowing down never occurred to me. There wasn’t time. I needed to make it nice. I wanted to make it nice.

I moved up the ranks quicker than most. Each promotion required a new but reassuringly mechanical set of skills. When setting food on a table, I learned to obey the maxim “raise right, lower left.” My movements had to be perfectly synchronized with the other food-runners, our arms dropping together like weighted levers. To replace a tablecloth, I would smooth it out with an antique iron, reset the table with glassware, silver and charger plates, making sure the labels on each were squared-off and facing the guest, all in under three minutes. Another server suggested that I hum the theme to “The Bourne Identity” under my breath to stay motivated. I did, and he was right. It worked.

Duck came out on a special cart called a guéridon. Captains did the carving tableside. Slicing off the left breast was easy, but to get the right side required a little finesse. You couldn’t turn the bird around, which felt natural to do, because the cavity could never face the guest. Chef decided this would be “unappealing.” So you had to switch hands, carving ambidextrously. Regardless of your abilities wielding a knife with either hand, both breasts needed to be on the plate in less than a minute, before the kitchen sent out the sides. If you took longer you’d be caught finishing the job while some runner hovered awkwardly next to you with a tray full of saucepans and tweezers.
Acting out your role during service could be fun. You could play guessing games like “hooker or daughter.” Or the “adjective game,” where you competed to successfully sell a wine with the least helpful descriptors possible. “Haunted” was a good one. You learned to read people. I still remember the Chinese businessman at Table 43. He had two companions that night: a pair of young women whose skin looked oddly synthetic. Right away he ordered a bottle of 1990 Krug — a thousand dollars, like that.

“May I take a moment to explain the menu?”

“We want the tasting menu,” he said.

The two women stared at their phones, indifferent to our exchange. They clearly weren’t planning to eat anything.

“Sir, the tasting menu is a five-hour experience.” I looked at him, then at the two women. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather spend some of your evening elsewhere?”He opted for four courses.

You experience a special rush when your job is to project an aura of warmth and hospitality while maintaining an almost clinical emotional distance. It’s the thrill of the con. This pleasure in deception was suggested by another metaphor popular with upper management: lipstick on a pig. The key to fine dining, I was told by one manager, was to ensure that the guest never noticed the pig, only the lipstick. Guests wanted to believe the make-believe; they wanted to believe everything was perfect. But the moment someone noticed a minor imperfection — a smudge on the butter, a fingerprint on the fork — other imperfections would suddenly become noticeable, threatening the illusion we all worked to maintain.

In a playground for the superrich, I was an overpaid chaperone wearing a bespoke suit. Gluttony was common. So was sex; more than once we had to interrupt coitus in the restroom. Once a woman asked to leave her baby at the coat check. When the maître d’ explained that dinner lasted at least three hours, she stared back at him, unfazed. “Yes, I know.” Grown men wearing Zegna and Ferragamo would sit at the bar chanting, “We are the 1 percent!”

The nightly grotesquerie was almost exciting. But something happened after spending too many nights delivering four- or five-figure checks on silver trays. Estrangement did set in. I imagine pick-up artists experience something similar. You learn what people want from you, and, for a while, you get a high making all the right gestures: the perfectly timed joke, the wry smile. But, deep down, you feel nothing. Until something forces you back to reality again.

WHEN the guest falls, I’m standing at a credenza near the bar. It’s lunch. The dining room is full. I don’t see him go down, but he makes a loud, gasping sound before he hits the floor. We all know him. He’s a regular. He’s been to the restaurant maybe 150 times and always orders the same thing: double vodka on the rocks to start; first course lobster; second course duck; no dessert. Usually he comes with his wife, who freely complains about his diet. He tips well, and, like most regulars, he is generally considered to be a jerk. But now, as he’s lying there, his skin turning a kind of grayish-white, it is impossible to feel anything for the man who has just had a stroke in the middle of our dining room except pity.

He is lying on the polished terrazzo floor, flat on his back. People are staring, not quite sure what to do, their thoughts clearly teetering between concern and that other more ugly thought — I waited three weeks for this reservation and this is ruining my experience. Everything leading up to this moment has been so carefully orchestrated: the timing of the courses, the neat folds of each napkin, the levels of every water glass. But not this. The normally composed servers are visibly shaken. How can anyone sanely elaborate on the virtues of left-bank Bordeaux next to a body?

Impossible, I think, so I turn to my manager and ask: “What should I do?” I assume somebody has called an ambulance. The manager has just finished hurrying to push a Champagne cart in front of the possibly dead man on the floor, a lame attempt to hide him from nearby diners. Nothing in the service manual can tell him how to answer my question. This isn’t planned; the moment demands real empathy, real human understanding, and not the counterfeit variety he and I earn our living with.

“I’m going to go turn the music up,” he says. “Just keep going.”

So I do. I keep going, pouring wine, giving spiels on food and dropping handwritten checks until the paramedics arrive 10 minutes later. The manager comps the bill for those people seated near “the accident.” No one else seems to mind.

The guest, I learned a few days later, survived. But he never returned to the restaurant. Neither did I, after I left a few months later to go to graduate school. In the end, “making it nice” for 80 hours a week left me feeling empty and tired. As the regular’s wife used to say when he ordered his usual lunch, “eating like that is bad for you.”

Edward Frame is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research.

If you are or have been a restaurant employee, share a behind-the-scenes story that you think would surprise customers, in the comments with this essay or on the Times Opinion Facebook page. Describe the establishment and your role — but no naming names! We may highlight your response in a follow-up to this piece.


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6) One Year After War, People of Gaza Still Sit Among the Ruins
By and MAJD AL WAHEIDI

GAZA CITY — The men of Shejaiya still come daily to sit vigil in the desolate ruins of their neighborhood, drinking tea and playing chess. But these days, there are also clusters of construction workers on Shejaiya’s dirt paths, finally pouring a few cement foundations and hammering together wood planks.

Fouad Harara, 56, arrives at his house on Montar Street before 6 a.m. to check the previous day’s work against his thick wad of engineering blueprints. He returns at midday with chicken and rice for the 10 men who have, over the past four weeks, completed the cinder-block ground floor where Mr. Harara plans to revive his electrical-services business and erected pylons for the second of seven sketched stories.

“Exactly the way it was,” Mr. Harara said of what would replace the home he built in 1993, one of hundreds flattened by Israeli attacks on Shejaiya, the Gaza City neighborhood that abuts the border fence, during the war last summer. “I was comfortable in this place,” he added. “We lost everything, but it’s still in my memory.”

A year after the halt to hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 26, 2014, not a single one of the nearly 18,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged in Gaza is habitable. About 12 percent of their owners have been approved to rebuild through the complex Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism created by the United Nations, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but just under 4 percent — 719 families as of Saturday — have actually purchased cement or other materials.

Those involved in the process, and advocacy groups, attribute the slow pace to Palestinian political infighting, Israel’s involvement in approving projects and participants, and a lack of funds. International donors have sent about $340 million of the $2.5 billion they pledged for Gaza’s reconstruction last fall, and much of that was spent on removing rubble, on temporary housing for 100,000 displaced residents or on minor repairs.

Israeli, Palestinian and United Nations officials acknowledge that cement has flooded Gaza’s black market, with some undoubtedly ending up in the militants’ underground tunnel network — the very thing the monitoring system was set up to prevent.

“We know and believe that some of it goes to the wrong places,” said Maj. Adam Avidan, Israel’s point person on the mechanism. At one point, 18 of 30 beneficiaries bought their full allotment of cement and “went the same day and sold it on the black market,” he said. “They didn’t build their houses.”

About 37,000 tons of cement sits unused in Gaza warehouses, nearing or past its expiration date for load-bearing projects.

Mofeed M. Al Hassaina, the Gaza-based minister of housing and public works, was in Shejaiya on July 23, when Mr. Harara was among the first four owners to start rebuilding, surrounded by clicking cameras. But Mr. Hassaina said he was afraid to return to the neighborhood, and had turned down an invitation to a school opening there after three days of demonstrations by residents outside his office.

“I cannot go there, because they are angry,” he said. “Maybe they’re cursing us and they’re shouting at me because they’re frustrated about their life.”

Palestinian civil-society groups pushed forward a petition this month calling for an end to the reconstruction mechanism, saying that Israel’s access to a database of destroyed homes and its role in reviewing applications only entrenched its control over Gaza, a position echoed in a report published this week by Gisha, an Israeli group that promotes freedom of movement for Palestinians.

But Mr. Hassaina, other Palestinian leaders and United Nations representatives all said that Israel had done its part in reasonable time and had allowed cement into Gaza. Empty coffers, they said, are the primary problem.

“Now we have 2,000 names that have been approved by Israel, Israel sends the material, but where is the money?” Mr. Hassaina asked. Qatar has provided $6 million of a pledged $50 million to rebuild 1,000 homes, he said, and “Kuwait promised $75 million, but we don’t have anything yet.”

The International Crisis Group, in a report scheduled to be released this week, says international donors have not paid up because of the worsening rift between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, and the lack of a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel, which it says makes another round of violence likely.

Others complain that reconstruction is being pursued piecemeal, without an overall development plan including infrastructure for neighborhoods like Shejaiya or any structural economic change to address unemployment in Gaza, which is over 40 percent. The reconstruction mechanism imagines going beyond rebuilding the homes destroyed last year to address Gaza’s prewar shortage of 85,000 housing units.

“Restoring the situation to June 2014 isn’t O.K. — far from it, that would be condemning Gaza to more misery,” said Robert Piper, the United Nations’ deputy special coordinator for the peace process. “The potential disaster is that we not move fast enough on the software — planning and coordination, for example — rather than the hardware.”

Mr. Piper and Bashir Rayyes, the Palestinian Authority’s coordinator for Gaza reconstruction, said the focus on destroyed homes was too narrow. About 78,000 Gaza families received money to repair homes with minor or moderate damage (though many of them resold some cement for up to triple the mechanism’s prescribed 520 shekels, about $135, per ton).

Mr. Hassaina, the public works minister, said 455,000 tons of rubble had been cleared; 1.5 million tons remain. According to the mechanism’s website, 115 larger projects, like schools, hospitals and roads, are in progress, 15 have been completed, and 237 are in the approval pipeline. Mr. Rayyes said 95 percent of Gaza’s electric grid and water supply had been restored.

“Things are not great, but things are moving, and guys, guess what, we need more money,” Mr. Rayyes said. “Everybody is looking at the empty half of the cup, and honestly, that is not helping.”

The people of Shejaiya cannot live on a repaved road or in a restored power plant. They await a text message like the one Hussein Sukkar, owner of building No. G-10-80-1040, received last week ordering him to bring “original copies of land ownership” to the ministry of public works. He had been approved to rebuild.

A typical new home is allocated $50,000. Owners can withdraw money in installments from the Bank of Palestine, then buy materials from the mechanism’s 100 approved vendors, whose facilities are under 24-hour surveillance, and hire one of its 260 contractors (10 vendors and 55 contractors have been suspended for unspecified violations). Inspectors from the United Nations or the housing ministry are supposed to visit each site to ensure that the work is complete before releasing the next batch of money and material.

Mr. Sukkar’s is one of two homes on Karama Street where work is underway; at least 15 more were destroyed. On Nazaz Street, where almost all of the homes remain in ruins, six men sat on plastic chairs under a tree one recent afternoon.

“The real war is now,” Kayed al Zaza, 45, said, complaining that the rebuilding process was unfair and based on money and personal connections. “It’s worse than Zionists’ wars, as it is launched against us by our own divided politicians.”

Abdel Hadi al Ejla, 56, lamented, “Tell me what kind of homeland this is, which lacks homes for its inhabitants.”

A relative, Nemer al Ejla, has been working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the home of another family member — a bittersweet task because his own application is still pending. “I reconstruct this place, but I have no home, and I live in a small tent with my 13 children,” he said bitterly. “I want to explode.”

The Harara family, too, is split: Four of their 19 buildings, which housed 250 people and surrounded a patch used for picnics before the war, are under construction.

Mr. Harara has a photograph of his former and future home affixed to the tent he put up after the fighting stopped last August, where has spent virtually every day since. It shows a flourishing nut tree, which he said was felled by Israeli bombs.

A few yards away, green branches sprout from the ground, some part of the tree apparently having revived itself.

“We are the same — our homes and ourselves,” said Mr. Harara’s brother Abed, 53. “We will not die. Our roots are like this tree.”



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7) Migrants Rush Across Border in Macedonia
By ALEKSANDAR DIMISHKOVSKI

SKOPJE, Macedonia — Hours after several hundred migrants bypassed a line of baton-wielding police officers on Saturday to enter Macedonia from Greece, nearly all those remaining on the Greek side of the border were allowed in, according to video footage and human rights activists at the scene. By Saturday evening, only around 200 people were left behind a fenced area on the line that separates the two countries.

Some of the people who entered continued their trip north, toward the Serbian border, via taxis and private buses. But most headed toward the train station about three miles away in the border town of Gevgelija, joining more than 2,000 people there waiting for a train to Serbia and Hungary, and then on toward wealthier European countries.

Earlier in the day, the Macedonian police used stun grenades in an effort to restore control and to return those who had managed to slip across the border in an area where the police presence was thinner and where there was no barbed wire. Officers gave chase as migrants ran through fields near Gevgelija, but because of their sheer numbers, many escaped. Some officers kicked migrants and beat them with batons, but humanitarian workers said there were no serious injuries.

The migrants, most of them fleeing violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, had grown impatient after spending most of Friday night in open fields under heavy rainfall, according to activists. About 4,000 migrants crossed into Macedonia on Saturday, including those who slipped beyond the police cordon and those allowed in later.

It was unclear Saturday night why the government had reversed itself and allowed migrants to cross the border; no explanation was given, and government officials could not be reached for comment. On Telma, a Macedonian television station, Jasmin Redzepi, president of Legis, a nonprofit organization that provides support to migrants, questioned why such a great number of vans and buses had suddenly appeared in Gevgelija to take hungry migrants to the Serbian border. “Is this the humane plan of the government?” he asked.

Local and international nonprofit organizations criticized the Macedonian police’s use of stun grenades and force on Saturday and on Friday, when officers tried to disperse a large group trying to cross the border. Human Rights Watch asked Macedonian authorities to ensure an immediate end to the police violence against migrants.

“These are very serious allegations of excessive force by the Macedonian police firing at people seeking protection,” said Emina Cerimovic, a research fellow at Human Rights Watch.

Ms. Cerimovic demanded “greater protection of the migrants, including children and those among them who may be fleeing war and persecution.”

Macedonia’s minister of foreign affairs, Nikola Poposki, reiterated appeals aimed at the European Commission on Saturday, asking for greater assistance and a more organized Europeanwide approach to dealing with the enormous influx of migrants.

“The support that we currently receive is symbolic,” Mr. Poposki said, “and most of the burden is on the Macedonian institutions. But we will do our best for the migrants that arrive to be registered and to be treated as humanely as possible.”

Work has started on the construction of a transit and reception center on the outskirts of Gevgelija to speed the processing of migrants and provide better support to them, said Ivan Frangov, the mayor of Gevgelija.

“It will ease up the whole situation not only for the migrants but for the local citizens as well,” Mr. Frangov said.

In an attempt to establish greater control and increase safety in the border regions and nearby cities, Macedonia’s government on Thursday declared a temporary state of emergency.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 3,000 migrants a day have reached the border in the last two days. More than 42,000 have already crossed the borders of Macedonia, a tiny country of about 2.1 million people, in the last two months.

Greece has also seen an unprecedented wave of migrants this year. More than 160,000 have arrived so far in Greece, crossing to its small Aegean islands in inflatable dinghies from the nearby Turkish coast and straining resources. The migrants are ultimately headed to countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Austria or Sweden where they can apply for asylum.



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8) Judge Increases Pressure on U.S. to Release Migrant Families
By

A federal judge in California has given the Obama administration two months to change its detention practices to ensure the rapid release of children and their parents caught crossing the border illegally.

In a harshly critical opinion last month, the judge, Dolly M. Gee of Federal District Court for the Central District of California, found that the administration had violated the terms of a 1997 court-ordered settlement governing the treatment of unaccompanied children — minors who tried to enter illegally without a parent. The judge determined that the settlement, in a case known as Flores, covered all children in immigration detention, including those held with a parent.

After considering final arguments from both sides, Judge Gee issued an order late Friday to put her ruling into effect. She ordered the administration to release children “without unnecessary delay” to a parent or other relative in the United States and, in a significant new mandate, to release the parent as well unless that person posed a flight risk or a threat to national security. In the past, the settlement has been interpreted to require the release of children from secure detention within five days.

Judge Gee also prohibited the administration from holding children in secure facilities that are not licensed to care for minors. She ordered the Border Patrol to upgrade the “deplorable” conditions in its front-line stations to ensure a “safe and sanitary” environment for children. She said the new measures must be in place by Oct. 23.

The judge’s order is the most serious legal setback to a vast expansion of detention of migrant families the Department of Homeland Security began last year after an influx of illegal border crossers in South Texas. Officials opened two large secure family detention centers in Texas, in addition to an existing one in Berks County, Pa. Although the two Texas centers offer fully staffed medical clinics, schools, gyms and other amenities, they are run by private prison contractors, not by agencies with state licenses to care for children, as the Flores agreement requires.

Homeland Security officials said they disagreed with Judge Gee’s overall findings, They argued, however, that the fine print of her order gave them leeway to continue holding mothers and children at the three detention centers, as long as officials were continuously working to move the migrants through their immigration proceedings and to reduce the time in detention for most families to no more than a few weeks.

“While we continue to disagree with the court’s ultimate conclusion,” said Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Judge Gee’s final order includes provisions to “permit the government to process families apprehended at the border at family residential facilities consistent with congressionally provided authority.”

Ms. Catron said Homeland Security officials would “continue to screen family members’ claims as expeditiously as possible, while ensuring that their due process rights are protected.” She said the Justice Department was reviewing the decision to consider an appeal.

The administration has faced a barrage of criticism from immigrant advocates and lawyers over the detention of children. A report this past week by Human Rights First, a national rights organization, found that children at the Berks County center showed “symptoms of depression, behavioral regression and anxiety” and “increased aggression toward both parents and other children,” even after only a few weeks behind walls. Their parents also “appear to be suffering from depression, including feelings of helplessness with regard to the care and health of their children.”

In another recent report, the American Bar Association reminded Homeland Security officials that detention of migrant families “has been rejected previously by both courts and policy makers,” and concluded that it “impinges on the families’ due process right to access to counsel.”

The association recommended that the families be immediately released. More than 150 federal Democratic lawmakers signed a letter calling on Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to comply with the Flores settlement.

The administration had asked the judge to reconsider her ruling, arguing that recent policy changes greatly reduced detention times for most mothers and children. Officials said their goal was to hold the families for an average of only 20 days, just enough time to identify them, give them medical checks and determine whether they had valid asylum claims to pursue. Most of the families are fleeing predatory gangs or other violent abuse in three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Judge Gee broadly scorned the administration’s arguments in Friday’s order, saying they had “utterly failed” to persuade her to reconsider. She said officials’ warnings that the swift release of families could spur another influx of Central American minors were “speculative at best and, at worse, fear mongering.”

Lawyers who initiated the legal challenge hailed the order as a major step toward ending family detention.

“I just think Secretary Johnson just has a blind eye when it comes to mothers and children,” said Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, which brought the lawsuit in the case.

But Judge Gee left the administration room to continue to hold families for longer than five days. If the administration can show there is a large influx of migrants, she said, holding women and children for up to 20 days “may fall within the parameters” of the Flores settlement.



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9) Gaza, Gulag on the Mediterranean
By MOHAMMED OMER

GAZA CITY — At this time last year, as the missiles and bombs rained down in Israel’s lopsided seven-week war against Gaza, I wrote about our struggle to survive during the holy month of Ramadan. This year, another Ramadan has passed, Eid al-Fitr is over and the reality on the ground has changed very little.

The same dreadful conditions are creating desperation among Gaza’s inhabitants, whose lives are terrorized by war and stunted by the long blockade of this spit of land, 25 miles long and six miles wide. The only difference now is the absence of the smell of gunfire and explosives, and of the smoke trails from missiles fired by Israeli F-16s crashing down among civilian homes.

I recently visited some of the most heavily damaged areas of Gaza, starting with eastern Rafah, where massive destruction is still visible and bullet holes spatter the walls of houses. Up the road, in the half-ruined village of Khuzaa, the legacy of physical and emotional trauma has yet to be addressed.

International donors at a conference in Cairo last October pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. Instead of permanent new homes, however, people in Khuzaa have received only prefabricated temporary shelters. When it rains, sewage leaks into rooms.

Farid al-Najjar, 56, whose orange-colored taxi was destroyed in the conflict, regards the Cairo conference as a joke. Reconstruction grants have not touched his life.

Traveling north to Shejaiya, the only sign of change is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — in a project funded by Sweden — has started removing the rubble. A year later, not one of the damaged or destroyed homes has been completely rebuilt.

Hassan Farraj, 61, stands in what is left of his house — the walls that remain are peppered with holes from automatic rifle fire and tank shells. The bare ground around the home resembles the shaven head of a vulnerable child, with no sign of anything growing back.

Everyone expects Israel to be back for another “trim,” or to “mow the grass,” or whatever deadly euphemism is in vogue the next time Israel deems it time to show us who really controls Gaza.Our children grow up not in neighborhoods, but in ruins, as Israel continues to block sufficient reconstruction materials from entering Gaza. According to the United Nations, 9,161 Palestinian refugee houses were classified as destroyed and 5,066 others severely harmed. Another 4,085 homes were judged to have suffered major damage, with another 124,782 that had sustained minor damage.

Palestinians in Gaza need economic development. Talk to most young people and they will describe circumscribed options and a limited ability to save and plan for marriage and a family. The sense of Gaza as a gulag on the Mediterranean only increases political frustration among Gazan youth, fueling their determination to resist oppression and demand access to the outside world.Extremism feeds on desperation. A youth in Gaza has already survived three major Israeli offensives since 2008. Scarred by memories of pain and loss, and with no realistic future to look forward to, young Gazans are more susceptible to extremism.

Radical groups like the Islamic State target the vulnerable and alienated. While some in Gaza are attracted to the jihadist ideology, their numbers are extremely low. The failure of the Islamic State to take root here is partly because of nationalist sentiment and the focus of Palestinian demands for freedom from this remote-control occupation and endless siege.

It is also in part thanks to the diversity of Palestinian society; Christians have always been integral to it. And Palestinians embrace interaction with people from other cultures: Those imprisoned in Gaza yearn to see the world and to welcome visitors to what could be our flourishing home by the sea.The Israeli military, despite its withdrawal in 2005, remains the de facto occupying power in Gaza. As a result, the Hamas administration struggles to exercise what amounts to little more than municipal authority. Like Fatah (the faction that controls the Palestinian Authority) in the West Bank, Hamas brooks no rival in Gaza, whether secular or Islamist. Its tough action against Salafist groups has provoked violent resistance.

At the same time, the jihadist insurgency just across the border with Egypt, in Egyptian Rafah and the northern Sinai region, is making life in Gaza even more difficult. Palestinians continue to hope that the Rafah crossing will open, but continuing violence in Sinai has caused Egypt to keep the border closed. Approximately 17,000 people in Gaza — from cancer patients to students and those who want to travel abroad — have applied for travel permits since May, with little success. Since the beginning of the year, Egypt has opened the crossing on just a handful of days.

Hamas officials understand that to limit the appeal of extremists, they must address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as maintain their claim to lead resistance to Israel’s actions. Thawing relations between Hamas and Saudi Arabia could enable both.

The Saudis might persuade Egypt to open the Rafah crossing more often and allow some freedom of movement to Gazans. A rapprochement with Saudi Arabia — at a time when Hamas’s relations with Tehran are strained — may also open the way to more financial aid from other Persian Gulf states.

Ordinary Palestinians in Gaza, however, are often overlooked amid these political calculations. Locked in this open-air prison, they face a triple burden. Denied the right to choose their government, they are subjected to continued rule by a party whose electoral legitimacy long expired. Lacking freedom of movement, they remain caged by a brutal siege imposed by Israel and Egypt. And in the absence of any international will to end their oppression and occupation, they receive continued promises of aid that never materialize. The so-called world powers look on as Gaza, divided from the rest of the Palestinian territory, slides further into misery and oblivion.

After last summer’s horrors, most Gazans simply want to secure a better life for their children. International donors, including Arab states, must transform pledges into facts. The United States and the European Union must find a moral commitment to assist Palestinians who are striving for freedom and control over their lives.

Until then, Mr. Farraj insists that his Palestinian flag will continue to flutter above the ruins of his family home.

Mohammed Omer, an independent journalist in Gaza, is the author of “Shell-Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault.”


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10) History of Defiance Preceded Palestinian’s 2-Month Hunger Strike
By DIAA HADID

AINABOUS, West Bank — A band of Palestinian gunmen burst into the apartment Mohammad Allan was renting while in law school in the West Bank city of Jenin a decade ago. They blindfolded him, beat him and fired their assault rifles at the floor near his feet.

The gunmen, who were loyal to a Fatah militant leader, Jamal Abu Rabb, tried for an entire day to force Mr. Allan to hand over his property to them, but he remained defiant.

“He didn’t back down,” recalled Mr. Allan’s friend, Nafiz Hussein, who said that the gunmen eventually gave up after they realized Mr. Allan would not be intimidated. Mr. Rabb, then a fearsome figure in the West Bank, even apologized.

During that standoff 10 years ago, Mr. Allan showed some of the fortitude he would demonstrate this summer when he nearly starved himself to death during a two-month hunger strike to protest his incarceration by the Israeli authorities without charges.Mr. Allan, a 31-year-old lawyer and member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, began his strike on June 16, and for more than 60 days he refused all food. It was one of the longest hunger strikes conducted by a Palestinian prisoner in years, and the most severe — Mr. Allan lost consciousness, and his doctors have said that he may have suffered brain damage. He was released last week when the Israeli Supreme Court said his health had so deteriorated during his fast that he no longer posed a threat.

The case exposed flaws in a new Israeli law that would allow for the force-feeding of prisoners in extreme circumstances, and it confounded members of Israel’s hawkish governing coalition, who said Mr. Allan had held them hostage with his hunger strike, and eroded their ability to deter militants.

Mr. Allan joined Islamic Jihad when he was studying law at the Arab American University in Jenin, said his father, Nasser El-Deen, a 68-year-old folk healer. He said his son was energized by the fight against Israel during the second Palestinian intifada.

Mr. Allan was first jailed by Israel in 2006 for trying to recruit a suicide bomber to carry out an attack in Israel, and was held for three years. He was briefly detained a second time by Israel in 2011, without charges, and soon after he was released he was detained by Palestinian intelligence officials.

Mr. Hussein, his friend and business partner, said that Mr. Allan was tortured when he was arrested by his fellow Palestinians, and he emerged from his detentions even more defiant of authority, frequently mocking Israeli and Palestinian officials on social media.

“Every imprisonment made him a harder person,” Mr. Hussein said.

Mr. Allan’s father said his son had on social media supported the Islamic State, as defenders of oppressed Sunni Muslims, but it never went beyond online missives. Mr. Allan claimed to support the brutal militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, only to be provocative, Mr. Hussein said.

Still a bachelor after the age when most men from his conservative village would have married, Mr. Allan was more devout than the rest of his large family, according to his father, a polygamist with at least one other wife in addition to Mr. Allan’s mother, with whom he has 10 children.

Mr. Hussein described his friend as particular, and very discerning when it came to finding a bride.

“He wanted a girl no older than 17, who didn’t mix with people, who didn’t graduate from school, with conservative parents, a woman who had never touched an iPhone or been on social networks,” Mr. Hussein said.

“Where was he going to find that?” he added.

Mr. Allan lived with his mother, Masouza Odeh, in a boxy home in Ainabous, a sleepy hillside village in the West Bank, when he was arrested last November. He was held in administrative detention, a contentious practice in Israel, in which a person is held indefinitely without public charges.

In prison, Mr. Allan found common cause with a fellow prisoner, Khader Adnan, another Islamic Jihad activist, who conducted a 66-day hunger strike in 2012 and began another one this year to protest his latest detention.

After Mr. Adnan was released in June after 55 days without eating, Mr. Allan, days into his own fast, decided to stare down the Israeli authorities alone. He refused all food and nutrients, and took only water. The Israeli authorities considered force-feeding him, but no doctor would agree to examine him, a requirement of the law passed last month.

“He was sure, if he was victorious in this battle, he would have gained a great victory for his people,” Mr. Hussein said. “It was like somebody going with a belt and blowing himself up,” he said, referring to Palestinian suicide bombers. “But he did it with his stomach.”

Avi Dichter, a former head of Israel’s domestic security and a hawkish government minister, suggested recently in a post on Facebook that Mr. Allan had been held in administrative detention because he was preparing a suicide attack on Israel.

A video of Mr. Allan that was released after he ended his hunger strike last week showed a shrunken man with a full beard wrapped in a blanket.

“This victory is because of God,” he said, before thanking his family and others who supported him. He spoke softly, taking quick, shallow breaths, and he appeared to stumble over some words.

Mr. Allan had been on a respirator for four days, and received salts and fluids intravenously to keep him alive before the court ruled to suspend his detention last week. At the time, doctors indicated that he might have some brain damage as a result of his extreme fast.

Ms. Odeh said that her son supported her financially. “Without him, I’ll be on the streets, or roaming a mountaintop,” she said in an interview outside Barsilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel, where her son was being treated.

Doctors at the hospital said last week that Mr. Allan’s condition was improving — he was recently taken off a respirator and continued to receive nutrients intravenously until he was strong enough to eat on his own.

Mr. Hussein said he expected his friend to recover and, once he is released from the hospital, to return to his activism, practicing law and sharing his fiery opinions on social media.

“He won’t change at all,” Mr. Hussein said. “Mohammad, when he is released, he’ll go back to work like nothing happened.”

Rami Nazzal contributed reporting from Ramallah.


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