Tuesday, December 02, 2014

BAUAW NEWSLETTER: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014

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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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Cops vs Free Speech
How police are threatening Mumia, convicts, teachers, and all of us with censorship as well as bullets!

Speakers and
Film: “Manufacturing Guilt”

7 pm Friday December 5th 2014
Theater at
La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley
(just below Ashby Avenue)
$5 - $10 sliding scale at the door
(no one turned away)

Join the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio and Oakland Teachers For Mumia to hear how police are targeting political enemies with attempts to restrict free speech.

•  Keith Cook, brother of Mumia Abu-Jamal,

•  Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant,

•  Eliot Grossman, former lawyer for Mumia, and

•  Spokespersons for Prison Radio, Oakland Teachers for Mumia, and the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.

•  Film: “Manufacturing Guilt” — This riveting documentary makes it clear how cops and prosecutors framed Mumia Abu-Jamal for a murder he didn’t commit.
Join us!  We will discuss:


• The New “gag” law in Pennsylvania that seeks to silence prisoners. This law, cobbled together in days following Mumia’s recorded presentation to a commencement ceremony at Goddard College, was explicitly designed to “shut him up.” The targets of this blatantly unconstitutional law, however, include all prisoners convicted of violent crimes!

• A Law Suit has been filed to stop the “gag” law from being implemented!  Support for this effort is critical. Donations will go toward the fight against the “gag” law.

• The  suppression of the “Urban Dreams” web site by the Oakland School Board. This teacher-created site of voluntary curriculum ideas included one comparing the suppression of Mumia’s commentaries with censorship of Martin Luther King’s later writings. While the Superintendent of Schools has now promised to restore the site, we must remain vigilant!

• Both of these measures—the “gag” law in Pennsylvania, and the suppression of the Urban Dreams website—were taken at the behest of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)!  The FOP is a highly politicized organization which seeks to silence social critics such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, and dictate the curricula in schools! The FOP and Democrat/Republican politicians will continue their attempts at intimidation and suppression, unless we act!

• Ferguson shows that black and Latino youth particularly are threatened by militarized and politicized police who shoot first and ask questions later, and frame their targets for crimes they didn’t commit. Chief targets have included Native American Activists like Leonard Peltier, militant working-class activists, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Black Panthers and Martin Luther King. Mumia is currently a top target to silence.  But anyone and everyone can be on their enemies list, and in their cross-hairs!  Fight back now!

Donate Now
to fight the “gag” law!
go to:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protect-freedom-of-speech-keep-mumia-on-the-air

See you on December 5th!

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222  •  Oakland CA  •  510.763.2347
www.laboractionmumia.org

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Support Prison Radio

$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

Pennsylvania legislators are trying to stop prisoners from speaking about their ideas and experiences. Last week, PA Representative Mike Vereb introduced a bill (HB2533) called the “Revictimization Relief Act,” which would allow victims, District Attorneys, and the Attorney General to sue people who have been convicted of “personal injury” crimes for speaking out publicly if it causes the victim of the crime “mental anguish.”

The bill was written in response to political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s commencement speech at Goddard College, and is a clear attempt to silence Mumia and other prisoners and formerly incarcerated people. We believe that this legislation is not actually an attempt to help victims, but a cynical move by legislators to stop people in prison from speaking out against an unjust system.

While to us this seems like a clear violation of the first amendment, unfortunately the PA General Assembly doesn’t appear to agree, and they have fast-tracked the bill for approval and amended another bill (SB508) to include the same language. The legislation could be voted on as early as Wednesday.

If this bill passes, it will be a huge blow to the movement against mass incarceration. People inside prisons play a leading role in these struggles, and their perspectives, analysis, and strategies are essential to our work. Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who write books, contribute to newspapers, or even write for our Voices from the Inside section would run the risk of legal consequences just for sharing their ideas.

That’s why we are asking you to take action TUESDAY OCTOBER 14 by calling Pennsylvania lawmakers to tell them that prisoners should not be denied the right to speak.

Please call your legislators and demand that they vote NO on HB2533 and SB508. You can look up contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/.

We are also asking folks to call the following Senate leaders and ask them to stop the bill from moving forward:

Senate Majority Whip Pat Browne  (717) 787-1349

Senate Minority Whip Anthony Williams  (717) 787-5970

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi  (717) 787-4712

Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (717) 787-7683

Not sure what to say on the phone? Click here for a sample call script.

Want to write a letter to your legislators, or looking for more talking points? Click here for more info!

- See more at: http://decarceratepa.info/freespeech#sthash.TtdN3AkI.dpuf


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March & Rally, 16th & Mission Sts, SF 

Sat., Dec. 6, 1pm

Stop the Epidemic of Racist Police Murders!



Justice for Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Alex Nieto, Tamir Rice...


As people were still taking to the streets across the country demanding justice for Mike Brown, this racist system delivered another outrageous injustice. A grand jury decided not to indict New York City officer Daniel Pantaleo for the murder of Eric Garner by placing him in a chokehold and, together with 3 other cops wrestling him to pavement. His last words were "I can't breathe."

The entire episode was caught on video, but the grand jury still declined to press charges! This latest murder is part an epidemic of police killings across the country including right here in northern California – Oscar Grant, Alan Blueford, Andy Lopez, Alex Nieto, Yanira Serrano, O’Shaine Evans and so many more. Just yesterday, the police street-executed an unarmed African American man, Rumain Brisbon, in Phoenix, Arizona, claiming that they thought a pill bottle was a gun!

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest of this wave of police murder and the fact that the cops who carry out these killings are almost never held accountable. Grand juries do what prosecutors want them to do 99.9% of the time. The non-indictments of the Darren Wilson in Ferguson, and Pantaleo in New York were what the prosecution engineered. It’s the system itself that grants impunity to the police even when their killings are captured on video.

Join the ANSWER Coalition and many others for a rally and march on Saturday, Dec. 6, 1 pm at 16th and Mission Sts., in San Francisco. For more information, call 415-821-6545.

On Sunday, Dec. 7, 1 pm, there will be a vigil for O’Shaine Evans, killed by the SFPD on Oct. 7 at Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway in Oakland. For more information, (510) 860-5476, Facebook Event
ANSWER SF
http://answersf.nationbuilder.com/

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COURAGE TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org/

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

November 24, 2014 by the Chelsea Manning Support Network
mchugh_md
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!
> > > Please donate today! < < <


War resister Sara Beining court martial set for Dec. 9 at Fort Carson, Colorado

sara beiningClick here to contribute to Sara Beining’s legal defense and prison fund
November 11, 2014. Courage to Resist and the Nuclear Resister
Facing a lengthy prison sentence, Army war resister Sara Beining is scheduled to be court martialed at Fort Carson, Colorado at 9am, December 9th, on two counts of desertion.
Supporters are encouraged to attend the trial, contribute to her legal and prison fund, and send her letters letter of support to: Sara Beining, A0305918 / Criminal Justice Center / 2739 E. Las Vegas St / Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Sara is a single mother and Iraq war veteran. She is being held in the civilian county jail prior to her military trial. Sara went AWOL a second time last summer after a nearly year-long delay in resolving the original charge that resulted when she left her unit at Ft. Hood in January, 2007.
Just over one year ago, September 14, 2013, Beining was stopped for a traffic offense and held on an outstanding military warrant, more than six years after she and her newlywed husband had together walked away from war service. She was briefly jailed, then given a plane ticket and orders to report back to Fort Carson, Colorado, where, she said, “I tried for another year to play the game” and be quietly processed out of the army as many other recent military refusers have been. But in her absence without leave, Beining had given birth to a daughter in September, 2008 and become an outspoken opponent of war.


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

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Update on the legal fight to #FreeRasmeaNow
Rasmea Defense Committee 

Urgent Action Alert:
Demand that Sheriff Release Rasmea from Solitary Confinement

We just learned that Rasmea Odeh has been in solitary confinement for the past 12 days, arbitrarily punished by her jailers at the St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, Michigan. She is not allowed any contact with other prisoners. Confined to her cell all day, except at midnight for a few short minutes, Rasmea can’t make phone calls and can’t receive visitors. This isolation punishment was initially set for 6 days, but when she had expected to go back to general population, it has been extended two days at a time, without explanation.

We have grave concerns about Rasmea’s well-being. She has not been eating well, due to ongoing dental pain as well as other health issues exacerbated by the conditions of solitary confinement.

1. Today, please Call the office of
St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon
(810) 987-1700 [choose option 0],
Tell him you are calling about Rasmieh [sic] Odeh (inmate #144979), and ask that he release her from solitary confinement immediately.

 2. Send a message on the county's webform
http://www.stclaircounty.org/Main/contact.aspx?id=sheriff
Go here and post the following webform message:
 “I am writing out of concern for the health and well-being of Rasmieh Odeh, inmate #144979. I urge you to take immediate action to end her solitary confinement.” 



Rasmieh Odeh #144979
St. Clair County Jail
1170 Michigan
Port Huron, MI. 48060

-- Fundraise and contribute to Rasmea’s commissary fund and to her ongoing defense. Donate at www.stopfbi.net/donate. Commissary funds allow Rasmea to purchase food, blankets, writing materials, and other items to make her more comfortable in the jail. Expenses continue to mount for Rasmea’s legal defense and ongoing community organizing. We will file an appeal of this unjust verdict, and that will take resources.

-- Spread the word! When publicizing on social media, use the hashtags #Justice4Rasmea and #FreeRasmeaNow.

www.uspcn.org and www.stopfbi.net
Donate to Rasmea! today

http://www.stopfbi.net/events/11-10-14/be-detroit-nov-10-rasmea-odeh-and-final-verdict

 follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Copyright © 2014 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414


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 Justice for Michael Brown

 


Call for March on Washington to demand justice 

for Michael Brown and other victims of police 

killings of Black men and women

 


By The Labor Fightback Network

[Please forward widely.]

With demonstrations sweeping the country to protest the grand jury’s exoneration of Darren Wilson and to demand justice for Michael Brown, the need for deep and massive involvement of labor’s ranks in the streets and in the public discourse could not be clearer.
To provide a needed national focus and to sustain the momentum, we urge the civil rights and labor movements to join forces and organize a March on Washington. This would give impetus to the demand that the federal government indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown.
The Black Freedom Movement urgently needs allies in this struggle.
The same is true of the labor movement, which also faces a critical fight for its survival against the corporate onslaught.
Labor acutely needs the support of its allies in its fight against such repressive anti-labor legislation as the misnamed “right to work.” But trade unionists should support the struggles of these allies if we expect them to support our struggles. It has to be a two-way street.
Police killings of unarmed Blacks are becoming virtually a daily occurrence. [Note: Police officers, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes extra-judicially killed at least 313 African-Americans in 2012, according to a recent study. This means that a Black person was killed by a security officer every 28 hours. The report notes that it’s possible that the real number could be much higher.[1] 
One of the most flagrant and egregious examples was the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice on November 22, 2014 by a Cleveland police officer after a 911 caller said that someone was waving around a gun, which the caller said was “probably fake,” and added “I don’t know if it’s real or not.” (The dispatcher failed to convey this to police.) Within two seconds after their arrival, one of the two officers on the scene shot Rice in the stomach from ten feet away (which was captured on video and shown to the public at the Rice family’s insistence). The boy had never pointed the gun (a toy gun) at the police or made any threats. The police officers on the scene waited four minutes before administering first aid. Young Rice died the next day.
The killing of Michael Brown was followed by the deaths of two more Black men at the hands of police in the St. Louis Area. The litany of names grows nationally: Ezel Ford in Los Angeles, Eric Garner in Staten Island, John Crawford in Ohio, and many others. Tanesha Anderson, a mentally ill Black woman, was killed in front of her family in Cleveland. And just recently Akai Gurley was gunned down in New York. Meanwhile, George Zimmerman, the vigilante executioner of Trayvon Martin, remains unpunished.
So this epidemic of unjustified police killings constitutes a national crisis. And Black people—especially the youth—feel their lives are in peril as police continue to kill them off with impunity.

What is to be done?

Starting with that day in August when Michael Brown was gunned down, the Labor Fightback Network (LFN) has called for the immediate arrest of his killer. We said convening a grand jury was unnecessary, but if it was to be convened an independent prosecutor should be appointed and that Darren Wilson should be put behind bars in preparation for a public trial. Instead, prosecutor Robert McCulloch remained in place and proceeded to manipulate the grand jury into refusing to indict Wilson, who spent four hours testifying before it, with no cross examination.
But this is not the end of the fight to win justice for Michael Brown and his family. It is just the first round.
Remember what happened in 1992 when Rodney King was viciously beaten by police and his assailants were acquitted in a state court. Under pressure—and following the riots that took place in Los Angeles after the verdict was announced—the Justice Department tried the police under federal civil rights laws and won convictions of two of them, who were sent to prison.
The LFN fully supports continuing demonstrations in cities and towns across the country protesting not only Brown’s murder but also the killing of other victims wherever they take place. Such actions are also demanding an end to police brutality and racial profiling, along with other demands being put forward by the Black Freedom Movement.
We urge a united front of the civil rights and labor movements, along with progressive anti-racist community organizations, to demand Wilson’s indictment under the federal Civil Rights Act, and to make that demand a central focus of a march on Washington!
Some would-be academic scholars have expressed skepticism that federal charges against Wilson could result in his conviction because the required element of “willfulness” in killing Brown could not be proved. But these scholars are looking at this struggle from a narrow legalistic prism. The key to winning it is mass action in the streets to force the federal government to act and at last provide a forum where Wilson could be cross examined. And it is high time for the identity of those who allegedly supported his claims in the state court to be revealed so that their versions could be subjected to the kind of scrutiny that was lacking in the state proceedings.
As for “willfulness,” a New York Times article titled “Experts Weigh Officer’s Decisions Leading to Fatal Shooting” (November 27, 2014) cites a number of different courses Wilson could have taken, even if credence is given to his account as to the actual sequence of events, (and a number of publicly identified witnesses have shown by their statements that there is no basis whatever to give such credence! For example, two workers cutting nearby trees at the time have agreed that Brown appeared to be surrendering when he was shot dead and several other witnesses said the same thing.)
What about a Taser instead of deadly force? No, said Wilson, it’s too heavy to carry around. But why not put it in the back seat of the car?
What about pepper gas? No, said Wilson, it could blowback on him. But don’t police carry shields to protect themselves against blowback?
What about staying in his car while calling for police reinforcements and tailing Brown until they arrived? Wilson obviously preferred to go it alone in pursuing Brown.
The fatal flaw in Wilson’s desperate attempt to avoid responsibility for his actions is the undisputed fact that he shot Brown twice in the head instead of some other part of his body, like his leg. That’s what makes this a cold-blooded murder. That’s what provides the “willfulness.”
In any event, these are issues for a jury to decide in a public trial, not dismissed, in effect, by a prosecutor in a secret grand jury proceeding.

Enough is enough!

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” That is the demand vocalized especially by the youth in Ferguson. Their anger is deep and pervasive. Millions around the country share it. A march on Washington, in the tradition of those called by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., has the potential to draw huge numbers into the streets and build a new movement, the likes of which we have not seen for decades. Labor should use the occasion to mobilize its forces, cement alliances, revitalize our ranks, and help turn back the reactionary, racist tide that threatens to engulf all progressive social movements.
Issued by the Labor Fightback Network.[2]

[2] For more information, please call 973-944-8975 or email conference@laborfightback.org or write Labor Fightback Network, P.O. Box 187, Flanders, NJ 07836 or visit our website at laborfightback.org. Facebook link:
 https://www.facebook.com/laborfightback
Donations to help fund the Labor Fightback Network based on its program of solidarity and labor-community unity are necessary for our work to continue and will be much appreciated. Please make checks payable to Labor Fightback Network and mail to the above P.O. Box or you can make a contribution online. Thanks!


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RH Reality Check
RHRealityCheck.org

Two weeks ago, Cleveland police killed Tanisha Anderson in front of her family's home when they'd been called by her family to help her, after she panicked as they were taking her to a local hospital for a psychological evaluation. Her 16-year-old daughter was watching from a window [1] as an officer used a takedown move on her mother, forcing Anderson face down on the icy pavement and then pressing his knee into her back until she stopped moving.

The police told concerned family members that Tanisha Anderson was sleeping and left her there on the ground. When the ambulance finally arrived 20 minutes later, she was dead. Once again, an African American family was reminded that no level of government in the United States is set up to protect and serve the well-being of their loved ones, no matter where they choose to live.

Tanisha Anderson's family can't afford her funeral expenses, and as of now, they've only raised $1,501 of their $7,000 goal. Can you help them today?

http://www.gofundme.com/hbeun4?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reality&utm_content=2+-+Tanisha+Andersons+family+cant+afford+her&utm_campaign=rhrc&source=rhrc

Natasha Chart,
Campaign Director, RHRealityCheck.org

[1] - "Daughter of mentally ill Cleveland woman who died in police custody hopes for change," by Brandon Blackwell, Cleveland.com, November 18, 2014

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/11/daughter_of_mentally_ill_cleve.html?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reality&utm_content=3+-+Daughter+of+mentally+ill+Cleveland+woman&utm_campaign=rhrc&source=rhrc



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 B. ARTICLES IN FULL




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1) West Virginia Coal Country Sees New Era as Donald Blankenship Is Indicted
By




2) Churches Urge Healing, but Also Activism, After Stormy Week in Ferguson
By , and





3) Daughter of mentally ill Cleveland woman who died in police custody hopes for change
Print
  By Brandon Blackwell, Northeast Ohio Media Group
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on November 18, 2014 at 5:02 PM, updated November 24, 2014 at 3:10 PM
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/11/daughter_of_mentally_ill_cleve.html?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reality&utm_content=3+-+Daughter+of+mentally+ill+Cleveland+woman&utm_campaign=rhrc&source=rhrc




4) Another Killing in Ferguson Leaves a Family Grappling With the Unknown
By





5) Tamir Rice’s family blasts police at boy’s Cleveland funeral
The 12-year-old shot dead by a Cleveland police officer after cops mistook a pellet gun for a dangerous weapon last month was buried Wednesday. 'Police officers are public servants — not James Bond with a license to kill,' Tamir’s uncle, Michael Petty, said during the service.
BY
December 3, 2014
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/tamir-rice-family-blasts-police-boy-cleveland-funeral-article-1.2032033




6) The Eric Garner 'chokehold' grand jury decision has the earmarks of a gross miscarriage of justice
Lacking full facts, the panel’s determination that the evidence did not provide probable cause to charge NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo with even New York’s least serious homicide count — criminally negligent homicide — is beyond mystifying.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 6:39 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/eric-garner-decision-gross-miscarriage-justice-article-1.2032278




7) ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Is Echoed in Voices of Fury and Despair
In Chokehold Case, Protesters Revive a Staten Island Man's Dying Words
By




8) Wave of Protests After Grand Jury Doesn’t Indict Officer in Eric Garner Chokehold Case
By and

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/nyregion/grand-jury-said-to-bring-no-charges-in-staten-island-chokehold-death-of-eric-garner.html




9) In Fast-Food Workers’ Fight for $15 Hourly Wage, a Strong Voice in Terrance Wise
“What we’re asking for is realistic. We took in $1,200 the other day at lunch hour at my Burger King. The six workers there cost them $60 or so for that hour. So I see they can pay us $15,”
By





10) Study Finds Violations of Wage Law in New York and California
By





11) The story of how a white Phoenix cop killed an unarmed black man
By Terrence McCoy  
December 5 at 3:05 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/05/how-a-white-phoenix-cop-killed-an-unarmed-black-man/




12)  Officer Who Fatally Shot Tamir Rice Deemed Unfit for Duty in 2012
"Timothy Loehmann criticised by small Ohio force for breaking down while handling live gun and his performance was called ‘dismal’, records show"
By Tom McCarthy, Guardian UK
04 December 14
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27300-officer-who-fatally-shot-tamir-rice-deemed-unfit-for-duty-in-2012




13) It Wasn’t Just the Chokehold
Eric Garner, Daniel Pantaleo and Lethal Police Tactics
By




14) We Must Stop Police Abuse of Black Men
By ERIC L. ADAMS



















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1) West Virginia Coal Country Sees New Era as Donald Blankenship Is Indicted
By

WHITESVILLE, W.Va. — On a memorial to West Virginia’s most recent mining disaster, the silhouettes of 29 figures are etched into black granite, men posed with arms around each another like teammates.

On the back of the solemn slab, the disaster is put in the context of the state’s long history of coal tragedies, including a 1968 explosion that killed scores, and a dozen other deadly events earlier in the century.

In not one of those cases did a coal mine owner face criminal charges for the loss of life. That history ended in November, with the indictment of Donald L. Blankenship, the chief executive whose company owned the Upper Big Branch mine near here, where an explosion of methane gas in 2010 spread like a fireball through more than two miles of tunnels, feeding on illegally high levels of coal dust.“Those responsible for managing mines in a way that caused multiple deaths were never held responsible,” said Patrick McGinley, a law professor at West Virginia University. “It shocks the conscience.”

The Charleston Gazette, a newspaper with a history of reporting on coal’s costs to the state, said simply, “This indictment is momentous.”

Neither Mr. Blankenship nor his attorney, William W. Taylor III, responded to requests for comments. But in a statement after the indictment, Mr. Taylor defended Mr. Blankenship: “His outspoken criticism of powerful bureaucrats has earned this indictment. He will not yield to their effort to silence him.”

Mr. Blankenship, who was raised in a trailer in one of the state’s poorest counties, rose to the top of Massey Energy, the largest coal producer in Appalachia. He was accused by federal prosecutors of trampling on health and safety laws to maximize profits, conspiring to hide the violations from inspectors and lying on securities filings. He faces up to 31 years in prison.

He has denied wrongdoing, arguing in a blog he set up to rebut his critics that he always promoted worker safety. “If they put me behind bars,” he wrote last year, “it will be political.”

Paradoxically, Mr. Blankenship’s own political influence has played out on an epic scale. His manipulation of West Virginia’s highest court in a civil case against him was rebuked by the United States Supreme Court in 2009, and inspired the John Grisham novel “The Appeal.”

Many family members of Upper Big Branch victims feared, in the nearly five years since the explosion, that Mr. Blankenship would never be held accountable because of his power and money.

As the United States attorney pursuing the case, R. Booth Goodwin II, won convictions of four lower-ranking Massey executives, miners’ families and others saw them as scapegoats. “Don Blankenship is a very powerful person; he won’t see a day in prison, I promise you that,” Jonathan Hughart, the son of David Hughart, a Blankenship lieutenant convicted last year, said at the time.

But all along, prosecutors were pressuring top executives to cooperate and establishing a paper trail tying Mr. Blankenship to daily decisions at Upper Big Branch. It is meant to refute any claim that he was too senior to have been involved in the disaster, which a state investigation traced to a corporate “culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable, where deviation was the norm.”

The 43-page grand jury indictment paints a portrait of Mr. Blankenship, 64, as a mine boss out of Dickens. He demanded a report every 30 minutes — including by fax to his home on nights and weekends — tallying up coal production in a section of Upper Big Branch that was one of the most profitable, producing $600,000 of coal a day.

Mr. Blankenship overrode managers who sought to strengthen roofs to prevent cave-ins or install ventilation systems to prevent explosions, ordering them to ignore “construction jobs” and instead to “run coal.”

After a passageway flooded four feet deep and a federal inspector shut it down, fearing miners might drown, Mr. Blankenship ordered mining to continue, scolding the mine’s president for “letting M.S.H.A. run” the mine, referring to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

When Upper Big Branch did not make its quotas or cut costs deeply enough, Mr. Blankenship threatened the mine president. “You have a kid to feed. Do your job,” he wrote. In another note scolding the executive for not producing enough coal, he wrote: “I could Khrushchev you. Do you understand?”

Early in his career, Mr. Blankenship became famous for breaking the grip of unions at Massey mines. Investigations described a climate of intimidation at Upper Big Branch in which miners were afraid to report unsafe practices, and two sets of books were kept to conceal hazards from inspectors.

Levels of coal dust were so high — a threat to human health as well as a fire accelerant — that autopsies of the dead men found 71 percent had black lung disease, compared with an industry average of 3.2 percent.

“That is beyond belief,” said Mr. McGinley, the law professor, who contributed to a 2011 state report.

The report also traced the disaster to the failure of West Virginia politicians, Democrats and Republicans, to stand up to companies like Massey, which “used the leverage of the jobs it provided to attempt to control West Virginia’s political system.”A prime example was the $3 million that Mr. Blankenship contributed to defeat a justice on the state’s Supreme Court in 2004, replacing him with one sympathetic to Massey at a time when the company was appealing a $50 million judgment against it.

The court overturned the $50 million jury award by a vote of 3 to 2. The majority included the justice Mr. Blankenship helped elect, as well as the chief justice, who was photographed vacationing with Mr. Blankenship four months earlier on the French Riviera. The United States Supreme Court reversed that ruling, criticizing the state court for an “extreme” conflict of interest.

Two years before the Upper Big Branch explosion, federal prosecutors declined to bring charges against Mr. Blankenship in an accident with similar circumstances at a mine in Logan County, over the objections of the widows of two men killed.

The case was taken as a lesson by the incoming United States attorney, Mr. Goodwin, who took over just after the Upper Big Branch disaster, according to a federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because a judge had ordered all parties to the case, including relatives of the miners, not to talk about it publicly.

On the fourth anniversary of the explosion, in an expensive public relations push, Mr. Blankenship paid for a 51-minute video casting himself as a champion of miners’ safety. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who appeared on camera, later said he had been tricked and called the video “propaganda.”

Mr. Blankenship argues that the deadly explosion, on April 5, 2010, was caused by a natural “inundation” of methane gas. State investigators found no evidence for this theory.

On Nov. 21, he pleaded not guilty in federal court in Beckley, W.Va. A trial date was set for Jan. 26. Mr. Blankenship, who retired from Massey shortly before it was acquired in 2011 by Alpha Natural Resources, was ordered to remain in southern West Virginia or eastern Kentucky.

Although Mr. Blankenship now lives in Las Vegas, his primary residence was once in Mingo County, where he grew up and built a mansion with a helipad in one of West Virginia’s poorest communities. He piped in clean drinking water to his home even as neighbors sued Massey for poisoning the local wells.

Bruce Stanley, a lawyer who grew up in Mingo County and has squared off against Massey in court, said there was a flaw in Mr. Blankenship’s creed of economic survival of the fittest. “Here’s a guy who did indeed pull himself up by his bootstraps,” he said. “You ask yourself, at what expense? Don’s the very guy who put his neighbors out of work, who’s driven his local community into the bottom of the bottom of the livability standards of the Western Hemisphere.”

In Whitesville, Jerry Mollohan, 64, a retired miner, called the indictment “long overdue.” He said that after a former security director from the mine, Hughie Elbert Stover, was sentenced to jail last year, he feared that would be as far as prosecutors reached. Mr. Blankenship was “more like a dictator than a manager,” he said. “I hope his political power won’t get him off.”

People in town sometimes refer to the explosion as “the incident,” and avoid mentioning the former Massey boss. The memorial to the tragedy is hard against the Big Coal River, easy to speed past on Route 3. The closest building is a library. Last week, LaDonna Foster, the librarian, called Mr. Blankenship “the man whose name we don’t speak.”






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2) Churches Urge Healing, but Also Activism, After Stormy Week in Ferguson
By , and

ST. LOUIS — At worship services around this region, clergy on Sunday called for recovery and healing after a week that began with an announcement that a grand jury would not indict a white police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson and that then careened through looting, fires, and tense standoffs with the police and National Guard soldiers.

Yet in many of the messages, there were also calls to continue a movement raising questions about race and police behavior that followed the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. That momentum and those concerns, some clergy members said, should not be allowed to fade away or be forgotten.

“I’m tired of living a certain way in our city,” the Rev. Shaun Ellison Jones, the assistant pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church-Christian Complex here, told the mostly black congregation in a simple room with tile floors. “I’m tired of some unjust laws.”“As Christians, our church encourages us to be engaged in the life of the city, the life of our community,” Mr. Jones said. He urged congregants to ride a chartered bus to Jefferson City, the state capital, on the first day of the legislative session in January to make their views known.

The problems exposed by Mr. Brown’s death, he added, stretch across the St. Louis region, with its patchwork of towns and police departments.

“Ferguson,” Mr. Jones said, “is not just in one ZIP code.”

The White House disclosed Sunday that President Obama was planning a day of meetings at the White House on Monday to respond to the unrest in Ferguson and racially tinged anger across the country. And in Ferguson, city leaders announced Sunday that the police officer who shot Mr. Brown on Aug. 9, Darren Wilson, was no longer a city employee. Having submitted his resignation letter after only three years of service, before he was fully vested, he will receive no pension, severance package or other benefits, they said.

Officer Wilson, 28, who had been on paid administrative leave and largely out of sight since the shooting, resigned after discussions with city leaders over a period of weeks. He has been a focus of protests in Ferguson, and he cited the safety of other police officers and the community among his reasons for stepping down.

In announcing Officer Wilson’s departure, Mayor James Knowles III said he saw an opportunity to chart the next steps for Ferguson, which was battered last week by the looting and fires that followed the grand jury’s decision, and where daily protests have continued.

“Now is the time for the city of Ferguson to begin its healing process, with the citizens of Ferguson and the Police Department,” Mr. Knowles said. “We truly understand that the past few months have been very difficult for everyone involved.”

While some political leaders have pressed privately for broader changes, including the departure of the police chief and perhaps even the dissolution of the city police force, Ferguson’s leaders gave no sense on Sunday that such steps were being seriously considered. Chief Thomas Jackson said he had no intention of resigning, and city officials cited plans to recruit more black police officers and give larger stipends to officers who live in the city.

Chief Jackson said he had spoken with Officer Wilson recently for the first time since the shooting. At the time, the chief said, he had not heard any specific outside threats concerning Officer Wilson’s return to the force. But, Chief Jackson said, “it’s been a threatening environment all along.”

“Everybody knows that,” he added.

At Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church here, where Mr. Brown’s funeral was held in August, the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke on Sunday to urge continued support of the cause inspired by Mr. Brown’s death, invoking the struggles of the civil rights era.“Ferguson is to this battle what there was in Selma to the voting battle,” Mr. Sharpton said. “Every generation must face its battle, and none of it is easy.”

Mr. Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and father, Michael Brown Sr., alternately hung their heads and clapped in approval.

“Somehow, God’s going to use Michael to make this nation deal with police accountability,” Mr. Sharpton said. “Somehow, God’s going to use this situation to heal the land.”

Before the St. Louis Rams’ football game here on Sunday, five Rams players appeared on the Edward Jones Dome field with arms raised in the hands-up motion that has become the symbol of this case. Outside the stadium, a group of protesters gathered, yelling chants like “No justice, no football” as the police stood watch.

Even as some school districts in the area were preparing to reopen schools on Monday for the first time since the grand jury’s decision was announced last Monday, more protests were planned. They included a walkout at schools and offices at 12:01 p.m., the time of day when Mr. Brown was shot.

At the Episcopal cathedral in downtown St. Louis on Sunday morning, the Rev. Michael D. Kinman did not immediately begin a sermon, but instead led his congregation in a song from South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement. “Oh, yes, I know, freedom is coming,” the mostly white parishioners sang along with him.

“This past Monday night, for the second time this year, we watched parts of our beloved city burn on live television,” Mr. Kinman said. “For nearly four months, we have heard powerful, young, nonviolent demonstrators cry out that black lives matter. We have heard terrible stories of the treatment of people of color at the hands of the police, which many of us have had to hold in painful tension with the relationships we have with beloved friends and family who are those police.”

Like many members of the clergy, Mr. Kinman has been active in the protests. He participated in a march that prompted an upscale suburban shopping mall to close temporarily over the weekend, and he stood outside the Ferguson Police Department for two nights after the grand jury announcement.

At least for this Sunday, services of the Flood Christian Church in nearby Country Club Hills were held beneath a white tent in a parking lot of a TitleMax office. A few paces away, the faint smell of smoke still drifted from the church, which was declared a total loss after a fire on Monday night during the unrest.

“We pray now for the ones who did this to the Flood Christian Church,” Carlton Lee, the church’s pastor, said. “We pray first off, God, that you would forgive them. Secondarily, God, we pray that you will save them. Thirdly, we pray that you will deliver them, and, fourthly, God, we pray that you teach us how to love the hell out of them.”

The authorities are investigating the fire, and police cars idled nearby during the service on an overcast afternoon.

Alan Blinder contributed reporting from Country Club Hills, Mo., and Julie Hirschfeld Davis from Washington.


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3) Daughter of mentally ill Cleveland woman who died in police custody hopes for change
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  By Brandon Blackwell, Northeast Ohio Media Group
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on November 18, 2014 at 5:02 PM, updated November 24, 2014 at 3:10 PM
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/11/daughter_of_mentally_ill_cleve.html?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reality&utm_content=3+-+Daughter+of+mentally+ill+Cleveland+woman&utm_campaign=rhrc&source=rhrc

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Mauvion Green hopes her mentally ill mother Tanisha Anderson didn't die in vain.

The 37-year-old schizophrenic Cleveland woman was pronounced dead early Thursday about two hours after she lost consciousness in the hands of police outside her family's home on the city's East Side.

Police said Tanisha Anderson went limp while struggling with officers escorting her to a police cruiser. The woman's family said they watched Tanisha Anderson die after a cop used a takedown move to slam her to the pavement.

Green, 16, watched the scene from a window inside her family's home. The Cleveland School of the Arts student wants no other family to endure the same.

"I am hoping for a change in the police system," Green said. "If they have a job to protect people, that's what they should be doing."

Police were called to Tanisha Anderson's family home on the 1300 block of Ansel Road about 10:50 p.m. Thursday. It was the second time family called police that day to report Tanisha Anderson was disturbing the peace, police said.

After long talks with Tanisha Anderson and her family, officers were given permission to take the East High School graduate to St. Vincent Charity Medical Center for an evaluation, police spokesman Sgt. Ali Pillow said in a news release.

On the way to the police cruiser, Tanesha Anderson began to struggle with officers who placed her in handcuffs, Pillow said.

"The woman began to kick at officers," he said. "A short time later, the woman stopped struggling and appeared to go limp. Officers found a faint pulse on the victim and immediately called EMS."

Tanisha Anderson's family tells a different story. They contend Anderson sat herself in the back of the police cruiser, but quickly became nervous about the confined space and tried to get out. That's when officers began to use force, brother Joell Anderson said.

While struggling to get Tanisha Anderson back into the cruiser, an officer used a takedown move and brought her face down onto the pavement. He put his knee into her back and placed her in handcuffs, Joell Anderson said.

Tanisha Anderson's daughter said her mother didn't move or say a word in the 20 minutes it took for an ambulance to arrive.

"When they put her on the stretcher, her arms just fell over, lifeless," Green said.

An emergency medical crew drove Anderson to Cleveland Clinic, where she was pronounced dead about 12:30 a.m. The Cuyahoga County medical examiner is still working to determine what killed her.

Green reminisced Tuesday about her jovial mother, their spontaneous shopping trips to Tower City and the lessons she learned from a loving force in her life.

"She was real giving and she forgave a lot," Green said. "People would do so much wrong to her, but she still turned around and she forgave."

Still, Anderson believed in fighting for what's right, Green said, adding that she plans to continue her mother's legacy by working for the conscientious treatment of the mentally ill.

"I'm fighting for my mother, but I'm fighting for everyone else, too," Green said.

She navigated her family's grief-stricken home Tuesday with a sense of peace about her mother's passing.

"She's happy now," Green said. "That's all I ever wanted for her."

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4) Another Killing in Ferguson Leaves a Family Grappling With the Unknown
By

FERGUSON, Mo. — Just up the road from the memorial of stuffed animals and candles that has become a place of pilgrimage and protest over the shooting death of Michael Brown, there is an empty parking lot where another young black man was killed last week on the night this city erupted in rage.

There are no rallies or news cameras there, no signs or ribbons to mark the spot where, the police say, Deandre Joshua, 20, was shot once in the head and then set on fire inside his car. He was the only person killed during the fires, looting and riots that shook the city after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in Mr. Brown’s killing. But in the days since, Mr. Joshua’s death has largely become a footnote to Ferguson’s story — an open homicide case and a bitter mystery for his family.“The unknown is what scares me,” his mother, Maria, 39, said in an interview at her home in nearby University City, where her son and his identical twin brother, Dont’A (Don-TAY), shared the basement. “I don’t know what happened to him.”

The police have offered few details about the killing. Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police suggested last week that there could be “a nexus” between the broader unrest and Mr. Joshua’s death, but a police spokesman said it remained unclear whether there was any direct link. The police have not named any suspects, and have said it was unclear precisely when Mr. Joshua was killed or why his body was burned.

Last Tuesday, the morning after the riots, Ms. Joshua was watching the news, she said, when she saw reports of a body found inside a white Pontiac Grand Prix near the Canfield Green Apartments, in the neighborhood where Mr. Brown had been killed. The news cameras focused in to reveal a crack in the car’s bumper and a missing front license plate. And Ms. Joshua said: “I knew it was him. It was him.”

She and Dont’A rushed to the scene.

His mother and brother described Mr. Joshua as a young man who liked to joke, worked nights stocking shelves at Walmart and dreamed of becoming a rapper. He graduated from Jennings Senior High School in 2012, according to Tiffany Anderson, the district superintendent.

He lived with his mother, brother and two younger sisters, and was still trying to figure out his way in the world, his family said. He considered joining the Army or applying to community college, but let both options slide.

His family said Mr. Joshua had never joined the marches and protests over Mr. Brown’s shooting, even though, in a twist of fate, the twin brothers were childhood friends with a crucial figure in the case, the witness who was walking with Mr. Brown when he was killed.

“It was just something that happened,” Dont’A Joshua said of the Brown shooting.

The area where Mr. Joshua and Mr. Brown died is one of the more violent corners of Ferguson, accounting for 18 percent of all serious crimes reported from 2010 to August 2012, according to an analysis of crime statistics by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Mr. Joshua never told his family that he felt threatened there, and he did not seem to have any enemies, his mother and brother said. But as Ferguson grew tense as the grand jury prepared to decide the fate of Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Mr. Brown, Ms. Joshua worried about Deandre, she said.

“I kept calling him that day, to tell him to be careful with this Ferguson riots,” she said. “And I never got an answer. I couldn’t get an answer.”

That night, Ms. Joshua said, Deandre watched the grand jury announcement with his aunt and two cousins on Winkler Drive, about a mile east of where his body was found. He was happy because Walmart had canceled his shift in anticipation of unrest.

Around 2 a.m., as a dozen buildings along West Florissant Avenue were burning and gunshots were crackling through the city, Ms. Joshua said, her son left his aunt’s home to make the short drive to the apartment of a girl he had been seeing for about a month. It is unclear how he ended up in the nearby parking lot of the Northwinds Apartments.

His death became fodder for online speculation, caught in the fervor over the unrest in Ferguson. People sifting through thousands of pages of redacted grand jury testimony from the Brown case posited that Mr. Joshua was one of the unnamed witnesses.

But Mr. Joshua’s family said he had known nothing about Mr. Brown’s death and never testified before the grand jury. A former girlfriend, Chasity Jones, a student at Southern Illinois University, said she and Mr. Joshua were at a St. Louis-area beauty salon in August when they heard news of Mr. Brown’s death.

Missouri court records show that Deandre Joshua was arrested once, on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, in April 2013, and had completed his sentence of community service and a year’s probation. A full record of the incident was not immediately available from the St. Louis County Police.

As it waits for answers, his family has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to cover his funeral and burial. The family scans the online speculation about him, but tries to look beyond it. And Ms. Joshua said she found herself driving past that ordinary-looking parking lot.

“I don’t know why I go there — I just ride by,” she said. “That was the last place he was at.”


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5) Tamir Rice’s family blasts police at boy’s Cleveland funeral
The 12-year-old shot dead by a Cleveland police officer after cops mistook a pellet gun for a dangerous weapon last month was buried Wednesday. 'Police officers are public servants — not James Bond with a license to kill,' Tamir’s uncle, Michael Petty, said during the service.
BY
December 3, 2014
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/tamir-rice-family-blasts-police-boy-cleveland-funeral-article-1.2032033

The boy killed by a Cleveland cop over a fake gun has been laid to rest amid tears.

Tamir Rice’s family and friends mourned his death at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church on Wednesday morning, calling for justice for a life “snuffed out like a candle in the wind,” according to NBC News.

The 12-year-old died last month after Officer Tim Loehmann shot him twice in the chest at a Cleveland park without a moment’s hesitation after allegedly witnessing the boy reaching for a gun in his waistband.

The well-liked student at Marion C. Seltzer School, whose teacher, Carletta Goodwin, remembered as always singing at his desk, had only been in possession of a pellet gun.

“Tamir consistently came to school every day,” Goodwin said, as reported by NBC. “He would tap on his desk, he would sing to himself. I would say, ‘OK, that’s enough,’ because he would get the rest of the class going.”

Michael Petty, the child's uncle, also promised justice for Tamir, critizing the rookie officer for acting too quickly in the shooting death of Tamir.

“Police officers are public servants — not James Bond with a license to kill,” Petty said at the morning service attended by about 250 people. “He was suddenly and needlessly taken from us.”

Both Loehmann and his partner had taken the call of a possible gunman and found Tamir sitting at a gazebo outside the Cudell Recreation Center on Nov. 22 even though dispatchers advised the gun might have been fake.

The gunshots delivered at point blank left Tamir bleeding on the grass for four minutes before he received any medical treatment. He died at a Cleveland hospital the day after the shooting.

Loehmann and Officer Frank Garmback are being investigated internally and were put on administrative leave for just three days after the shooting.

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1) The Eric Garner 'chokehold' grand jury decision has the earmarks of a gross miscarriage of justice
Lacking full facts, the panel’s determination that the evidence did not provide probable cause to charge NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo with even New York’s least serious homicide count — criminally negligent homicide — is beyond mystifying.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 6:39 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/eric-garner-decision-gross-miscarriage-justice-article-1.2032278

The grand jury’s vote to exonerate the police officer whose chokehold killed Eric Garner on Staten Island has glaring earmarks of a gross miscarriage of justice.

The ruling is painfully far harder to understand than the Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

To a large degree, the evidence against Officer Daniel Pantaleo was widely scrutinized by the public in the form of a on-scene video posted to the Internet by the Daily News. The image of Pantaleo wrestling Garner to the ground with his arm around Garner’s neck was horrifying.

Even granting that a cop has wide latitude in using force to make an arrest, Pantaleo’s sudden aggressiveness was unnecessary. The fact that it entailed a chokehold only reinforced the excessive quality of his actions.

After the medical examiner found that a chokehold and chest compression led to Garner’s death, the connection between cause and effect seemed enough to many people not only to indict but to convict Pantaleo.

Deep, intense skepticism about the grand jury’s ruling is fully warranted — while recognizing that no one other than the panel and Staten Island prosecutors have reviewed all the evidence and matched the facts against the law.

In Missouri, the district attorney released the grand jury testimony — sparking an informed debate over accounts by some witnesses that Brown had charged toward Officer Darren Wilson after attacking him in Wilson’s patrol car, and accounts by other witnesses that Brown was surrendering when Wilson shot.

The Garner case has no known conflicts among witnesses. And District Attorney Dan Donovan is barred from discussing the grand jury evidence, never mind releasing it. He was right to ask a court to approve dissemination of at least some evidence, and the court must do so quickly.

Lacking full facts, the panel’s determination that the evidence did not provide probable cause to charge Pantaleo with even New York’s least serious homicide count — criminally negligent homicide — is beyond mystifying.

In order to indict, the grand jury needed to find only that the weight of the evidence — a far lower burden of proof than beyond a reasonable doubt — indicated Pantaleo had failed “to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk” of death in using the chokehold.

Under the circumstances, the risk in Pantaleo’s action clearly appears to have been both substantial, because the NYPD has long barred chokeholds as potentially lethal, and unjustifiable, because Pantaleo and his team of cops clearly could have used less extreme tactics to arrest Garner.

Still more, the chokehold’s impact became immediately apparent as Garner repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe” while he was pressed to the sidewalk — only to be left unassisted by cops or emergency medical technicians.

The grand jury’s apparent determination that Pantaleo had properly subdued Garner will heighten raw racial friction over the killings of black men by white cops here and elsewhere, and, still worse, intensify a belief that the justice system offers no redress.


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7) ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Is Echoed in Voices of Fury and Despair
In Chokehold Case, Protesters Revive a Staten Island Man's Dying Words
By

They chanted it in Grand Central Terminal, shouted it in Times Square, emblazoned it across Facebook and Twitter, the three words that came to stand for the death of another unarmed black man at the hands of a white police officer.

“I can’t breathe,” Eric Garner had gasped after the officer put his neck in a chokehold on a hot July day on Staten Island, a fatal encounter captured on video and viewed by millions of people. On Wednesday, after a grand jury declined to indict the officer, the words — and the video — were revived in a wave of despair and fury that rolled as far out as the corridors of Capitol Hill and the streets of Oakland, Calif.

Elected officials in New York and Washington, too, did not hold back, offering an extraordinary outpouring of stunned reaction that seemed to mirror — and perhaps calm — protesters’ anger.As demonstrators rushed to Staten Island, hundreds of people marched north from Times Square, trying, and failing, to push through police barricades to disrupt the annual Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. Protesting from midafternoon to late into the night, they blocked traffic on the West Side Highway, disrupted it on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and at the Lincoln Tunnel, sat en masse at Columbus Circle, and held “die-ins” at Grand Central Terminal and near Radio City Music Hall. “We can’t breathe,” they chanted.

Unlike those in Ferguson, Mo., after a grand jury decided not to indict a police officer in the death of an unarmed black teenager there, the protests remained largely peaceful, with about 30 arrests by 10 p.m. Early Thursday morning, several groups of protesters continued to march through the city, with many demonstrating at the Brooklyn Bridge and some remaining in Times Square.

Yet this was no Ferguson, where conflicting witness accounts obscured the circumstances of the confrontation between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot him. This encounter was recorded at close range on a cellphone camera, the fact that kept many on Wednesday asking: How? Why?

“You can see the video,” said Diane Moss, 63, of Staten Island, her voice strained with disbelief. “It’s one thing if it’s ‘he said, she said,’ but when you see the video — the guy wasn’t resisting.”

Her neighbor, Marjorie Fabre, 53, seethed next to her.

“They keep on showing the tape on TV, over and over and over,” she said. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, had been trying to arrest Mr. Garner for selling loose cigarettes. “I mean, over a cigarette?”

What could you say, people asked, when the evidence could not seem clearer. What conclusion could you draw, other than:

“It looks like there’s no change,” said Jesse Love, who was one of a few dozen protesters who gathered at the scene of Mr. Garner’s death, outside a beauty supply store and opposite a humble park. No change in police behavior, in the way African-Americans are treated by the legal system, in race relations.

“We had a video. How can we win? We can’t win,” said a man who gave his name as James.

Nearby, Daniel Skelton, 40, ripped cigarettes from a pack of Newports, flung them to the ground and stomped on them.

“Black lives,” he shouted.

In Oakland, a diverse crowd of about 200 marched. “There’s this big talk about the body cameras, and here we have this officer killing Eric Garner on camera, and he still gets away with it,” said Ashlee Johnson, 26.

Reacting swiftly, President Obama said the decision not to indict the officer underscored the frustrations that many African-Americans felt about their treatment by a legal system they believed was stacked against them.

Most were less restrained.

“The failure to indict is a stunning miscarriage of justice, and makes clear that equal protection under the law does not exist for all Americans,” said Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from Brooklyn who, along with other members of New York’s congressional delegation, spoke at the Capitol to call for a federal investigation into Mr. Garner’s death.

“What more does America need to see?” Mr. Jeffries said. “We are better than this as a country.”

Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, called Mr. Garner’s death “a tragedy that demands accountability.”

“Nobody unarmed should die on a New York City street corner for suspected low-level offenses,” she said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio canceled an appearance at the tree-lighting ceremony to speak at a church on Staten Island.

At Grand Central, dozens of protesters lay on the ground amid commuters to symbolize black men killed by the police. “I cannot believe I live in a country where this is happening in 2014,” said Talibah Newman, 30.

Outside the courthouse, Rosalyn Warren, 52, a Legal Aid staff member, recalled her childhood on Staten Island, where the largely white South Shore was all but off limits to her. And now? “Different year, same faces, same views,” she said. She shook her head.

“History,” she said, “was not going to be made on Staten Island today.”


Reporting on the grand jury’s decision in the death of Eric Garner was contributed by Ronnie Cohen, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Edna Ishayik, Mark Landler, James C. McKinley Jr., Benjamin Mueller, Kate Pastor, William K. Rashbaum, Marc Santora, Nate Schweber, Nikita Stewart, Alex Vadukul and Benjamin Weiser.



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8) Wave of Protests After Grand Jury Doesn’t Indict Officer in Eric Garner Chokehold Case
By and

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/nyregion/grand-jury-said-to-bring-no-charges-in-staten-island-chokehold-death-of-eric-garner.html

A Staten Island grand jury on Wednesday ended the criminal case against a white New York police officer whose chokehold on an unarmed black man led to the man’s death, a decision that drew condemnation from elected officials and touched off a wave of protests.

The fatal encounter in July was captured on videos and seen around the world. But after viewing the footage and hearing from witnesses, including the officer who used the chokehold, the jurors deliberated for less than a day before deciding that there was not enough evidence to go forward with charges against the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, 29, in the death of the man, Eric Garner, 43.

Officer Pantaleo, who has been on the force for eight years, appeared before the grand jury on Nov. 21, testifying that he did not intend to choke Mr. Garner, who was being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. He described the maneuver as a takedown move, adding that he never thought Mr. Garner was in mortal danger.

The decision came barely a week after a grand jury found no criminality in the actions of another white police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Mo.

After the news from Staten Island, a wave of elected officials renewed calls for Justice Department intervention, saying the grand jury’s finding proved that justice could be found only in the federal courts. By the evening, the department announced it would open a civil rights inquiry.

On the streets of the city, from Tompkinsville to Times Square, many expressed their outrage with some of the last words Mr. Garner uttered before being wrestled to the ground: “This stops today,” people chanted. “I can’t breathe,” others shouted.

While hundreds of angry but generally peaceful demonstrators took to the streets in Manhattan as well as in Washington and other cities, the police in New York reported relatively few arrests, a stark contrast to the riots that unfolded in Ferguson in the hours after the grand jury decision was announced in the Brown case.

President Obama, speaking in Washington, said the decisions in New York and Missouri highlighted the frustrations that many African-Americans have harbored about a legal system that has a long history of discrimination against black people.

“When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that is a problem,” Mr. Obama said, “and it’s my job as president to help solve it.”

Officer Pantaleo said in statement on Wednesday that he felt “very bad about the death of Mr. Garner,” just as he had told the 23 panelists of the grand jury when he testified before them for two hours.

During the proceedings, jurors were shown three videos of the encounter, and in his testimony Officer Pantaleo sought to characterize his actions as a maneuver taught at the Police Academy. He said that while holding onto Mr. Garner, he felt fear that they would crash through a plate glass storefront as they tumbled to the ground, said Stuart London, his lawyer. One of the officer’s arms went around Mr. Garner’s throat, as Mr. Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.”

Appearing with the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem, Mr. Garner’s widow, Esaw Garner, said she did not accept the officer’s apology.

“Hell, no,” Ms. Garner said. “The time for remorse for the death of my husband was when he was yelling to breathe.”

She said that while she mourned, the officer could go home to his family.

“He’s still feeding his kids,” she said, “and my husband is six feet under and I’m looking for a way to feed my kids now.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking on Staten Island, said that it was a “deeply emotional day” for the Garner family and all New Yorkers, and that he had thought of his own son in considering Mr. Garner’s fate. But he implored demonstrators to voice their outrage peacefully and not engage in the destructive violence that followed protests in Ferguson over Mr. Brown’s death.

“Today’s outcome is one that many in our city did not want,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Yet New York City owns a proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through nonviolent protest.”

An autopsy by the city’s medical examiner found that Mr. Garner’s death was a homicide resulting from the chokehold — a maneuver banned by the Police Department in 1993 — and the compression of his chest by police officers.

In early September, the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr., impaneled the grand jury to weigh evidence; it heard testimony from the officers involved and 22 civilian witnesses. All of the officers, with the exception of Officer Pantaleo, were granted immunity.

The encounter exposed apparent lapses in police tactics and raised questions about the aggressive policing of minor offenses in a time of historically low crime. The officers involved, part of a plainclothes unit, suspected Mr. Garner of selling cigarettes on the street near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, a complaint voiced by local business owners.Mr. Garner’s death hastened an effort to retrain all the department’s patrol officers and brought scrutiny on how officers who violate its rules are disciplined. Officer Pantaleo has been stripped of his gun and badge during the investigation.

Now, Mr. de Blasio said, the grand jury decision had accelerated the need for that overhaul. Earlier on Wednesday, the mayor announced the start of a pilot program to equip officers with body cameras to record encounters on patrol.

But how useful such technology will prove to be in settling disputes over police actions remains an open question. Mr. Garner’s relatives had believed for months that a widely circulated cellphone video of the violent arrest that caused his death would be enough to convince grand jurors that the case merited a criminal trial.

Jonathan C. Moore, a lawyer for the Garner family, said “We’re astounded by the outcome of the grand jury process.”

In a statement, Mr. Donovan said investigators also spoke with the emergency responders who provided medical treatment both at the scene and at the hospital, and expert witnesses in the area of forensic pathology as well as the procedures and training of police officers. He said that he was constrained by law from discussing details of their findings, but that he had petitioned the court for “authorization to publicly release specific information in connection with this grand jury investigation.”

He expressed his condolences to the family and said his office conducted a thorough investigation that “spanned four months.”

“I assured the public that I was committed to a fair, thorough, and responsible investigation into Mr. Garner’s death,” he said.

Grand juries determine whether enough evidence exists for a case to go forward to a criminal trial, either before a jury or a judge. By law, they operate in secret and hear only evidence presented by prosecutors, who also instruct the grand jurors on the law. Defense lawyers are barred from speaking. For a decision, 12 jurors who have heard all of the evidence must agree.

While the exact makeup of the grand jury was unclear, Mr. London said it was roughly half white, with the other half evenly divided among blacks and Hispanics.

With the criminal phase over, Officer Pantaleo’s fate moves into the realm of Police Department discipline. It is far from clear if he will return to enforcement duties, and Commissioner William J. Bratton said he would remain on suspension pending an internal investigation.

Even before Mr. Garner’s death, Mr. Bratton had been tasked by the mayor with repairing the fissures between the police and the communities they serve, moving away from street stops and minor marijuana arrests. Those changes, however, have yet to quell the anger that deaths such as Mr. Garner’s bring forth.

Reporting on the grand jury’s decision in the death of Eric Garner was contributed by Ronnie Cohen, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Edna Ishayik, Mark Landler, James C. McKinley Jr., Benjamin Mueller, Kate Pastor, William K. Rashbaum, Marc Santora, Nate Schweber, Nikita Stewart, Alex Vadukul and Benjamin Weiser.
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9) In Fast-Food Workers’ Fight for $15 Hourly Wage, a Strong Voice in Terrance Wise
“What we’re asking for is realistic. We took in $1,200 the other day at lunch hour at my Burger King. The six workers there cost them $60 or so for that hour. So I see they can pay us $15,”
By


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Most mornings last year, Terrance Wise left home before his three daughters woke up, to head to his $9.30-an-hour job at Burger King.

And after working his second job of the day, as a $7.47-an-hour cook for Pizza Hut, he returned home 16 hours later, around 11 p.m., after his daughters had gone to sleep.

“The kids started saying, ‘Daddy, we never get to see you,' ” said Mr. Wise, 35.

The situation worsened when Burger King cut back his hours and his fiancée was sidelined from work with a back injury. Despite his working two jobs, he and his family were evicted from their apartment, leaving them homeless for three months.His financial struggles while working in low-paying fast-food jobs since the age of 16 help to explain — not surprisingly to many friends and colleagues — why he has emerged as the leading voice of a nationwide movement of fast-food workers clamoring for a higher wage. Two years after 200 fast-food workers walked out in a one-day strike in New York City, the walkouts have spread across the country and become the largest labor protests in the nation in years.

On Thursday, when the Fight for 15 campaign plans to stage another wave of one-day strikes, this time in more than 150 cities, Mr. Wise will be at the forefront in Kansas City, demonstrating outside McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurants.

“I have never seen a movement like this,” said Mr. Wise, in his crisp tenor voice. “We’ve seen how the civil rights movement won civil rights and we’ve seen how women won the right to vote. Those things weren’t given to us. People faced hoses and beatings.

“Some people even died. We have to bring the same pressure for today’s times and make the companies listen to us. We have to do whatever it takes to win.”

Often speaking with the cadence of a preacher, Mr. Wise has inspired friends and co-workers. Some of them say his appearances on NPR or “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC remind them of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He traces his speaking style to a time when, as a precocious young golfer in Columbia, S.C., he was invited into the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “I was really committed at that age to the Bible and learning the ministry,” Mr. Wise said. “People called me ‘Bible Boy.’ ”

He spent his childhood in public housing, with his mother earning so little as a Hardee’s restaurant cashier that she sometimes could not pay the electricity bill. “We never owned a house, we never owned a car, we had to take our clothes to the laundry in a shopping cart,” Mr. Wise said. “It was really a bad neighborhood — they said the way out was to play sports or sell drugs.”

While he played golf and basketball and was an honors track student who won prizes for public speaking, his two brothers went to prison for selling drugs. Even then, Mr. Wise held two jobs — at KFC and Wendy’s — during high school. He wound up dropping out because he couldn’t juggle school with a work schedule that often ended at 2 a.m.

The pay for fast-food jobs was bad then and still is, he said. “What we’re asking for is realistic. We took in $1,200 the other day at lunch hour at my Burger King. The six workers there cost them $60 or so for that hour. So I see they can pay us $15,” Mr. Wise said.

As leader of the Fight for 15 campaign, Mr. Wise is sometimes a calming presence, sometimes an inspiring activist, rarely hesitating to rail against fast-food companies.

When the movement needed an emissary to address the N.A.A.C.P.'s national convention to persuade the group to endorse a higher wage, it sent Mr. Wise, who is not paid for his work for the movement. When 1,200 members of the movement gathered in July for a convention, Mr. Wise led a crucial segment that rallied votes behind a risky plan to commit civil disobedience.

And last week, Mr. Wise oversaw a nationwide conference call in which workers, gathered at meetings in 50 cities, loudly approved plans for Thursday’s strike — the eighth in a wave of one-day strikes and protests.

“My kids are living in poverty, it’s hard getting just the basic necessities, and they truly are the reason I fight,” Mr. Wise told the workers in the conference call. “It makes me angry, and you should be angry, that these billion-dollar corporations are robbing from my kids and your kids. So we’re going to have to stand up and fight back.”

In September, they fought back and got publicity, with Mr. Wise leading a sit-in outside a McDonald’s in downtown Kansas City, where 52 workers were arrested. Nearly 500 fast-food workers and supporters were arrested nationwide that day. The ones here in Kansas City wore red T-shirts that read, “We Are Worth More,” and sang “This Little Light of Mine” and other civil rights songs.

At first, Mr. Wise resisted the push to head the national effort. He eventually gave in, with a sense that this was a role he has been preparing for his whole life. “I feel like that’s what I was supposed to do,” he said.

Kendall Fells, national organizing director of Fight for 15, said, “Terrance is a natural-born leader, and he is doing a good job bringing in other leaders.”

Mr. Wise says he is by no means the movement’s only leader. Naquasia LeGrand, a KFC worker in New York City, showed her mettle when she did a clever star turn on “The Colbert Report.” Nancy Salgado, a McDonald’s cashier in Chicago, has earned a reputation for fearlessness, interrupting a speech by the president of McDonald’s to denounce her pay of $8.25 an hour after 10 years’ employment

Fast-food companies play down the protests, saying the one-day strikes are not strikes and hardly affect their operations. Industry officials often call the movement a union front — indeed, the Service Employees International Union has spent more than $10 million to underwrite the movement, seeing it as a powerful lever to raise pay for low-wage workers nationwide.

McDonald’s says it pays its workers competitive wages and warns that a wage increase will hurt small and medium-size restaurant businesses. Burger King says it has provided entry level jobs for millions of workers.

Brad Jones, Missouri director of the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group, criticized the $15 fast-food wage effort. “They’re not looking at your independent pizza guy, your deli on the corner, your little bar and grill,” he said. “If these folks have to increase their wages by $5 an hour, it’s really going to be detrimental to them.” He warned that if restaurants had to pay $15, they would hire far fewer young workers for entry level jobs.

With his fiancée, Myosha, back at her job as a home care aide, Mr. Wise and his family are back in an apartment. (During their homeless months, they stayed with her brother.) Still, the circumstances are problematic: Because of an inadequate heating system, their daughters sleep on the living room couch rather than in their bedroom, which lacks a radiator. To warm the apartment one recent 10-degree night, the family left the oven on, its door open.

Their gas was recently shut off when they could not pay the $348 bill. They receive $240 a month in food stamps for their daughters, 13, 11 and 9. They couldn’t afford the annual back-to-school items that might have spared the girls an embarrassing episode — classmates mocked them for wearing the same shoes as last year.

Upset about seeing so little of his children, Mr. Wise quit his Pizza Hut job, which had involved a 90-minute bus trip from his Burger King job. He said he had grown frustrated that in his three years at Pizza Hut, his raises totaled just 22 cents, taking him to $7.47, from $7.25, the federal minimum wage.

“My store manager showed me a sheet explaining the pay policy,” he said. “It said the maximum raise was 25 cent over three years. She said, ‘If I gave you 25 cents, that means you’re perfect.’ ”

Suzy de la Cruz, a Mexican immigrant who works with Mr. Wise at Burger King, said he persuaded her to join Fight for 15. “I respect Terrance; they overwork him just like they overwork me,” she said. Another co-worker, Vanessa Jackson, said: “Terrance goes out on the limb for us. When the manager tries to come down on us, Terrance will say, ‘That’s not cool.’ He has our back on a lot of things.”

Mr. Wise insists that a $15 hourly wage is not an impossible dream. “The way to achieve it is to get all types of low-wage workers involved,” he said. “We have to build a movement for all low-wage workers.”


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10) Study Finds Violations of Wage Law in New York and California
By

The United States Labor Department says that a new study shows that between 3.5 and 6.5 percent of all the wage and salary workers in California and New York are paid less than the minimum wage.

The study, which examined work force data for the two states, found that more than 300,000 workers in each state suffered minimum-wage violations each month. Labor Department officials said that even if one assumed a violation rate half that nationwide, that would mean more than two million workers across the nation were paid less than the federal or state minimum wage.

Violations were most common in the restaurant and hotel industries, the study found, followed by educational and health services and retail and wholesale.“These findings are alarming in terms of the prevalence of the problem, particularly in a set of industries where we already know workers earn low wages and struggle to earn a basic family budget,” said David Weil, administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.

The minimum-wage violations in those two states translate into $20 million to $29 million in lost income per week, the study concluded. Those amounts represent 38 percent of the income of the victimized workers in New York and 49 percent of the income of victimized workers in California.

The study was based on 2011 data, when the minimum wage in New York was $7.25 an hour and $8 an hour in California. The study found that 11 percent of low-wage workers suffered minimum-wage violations — it defined low-wage workers as those making less than 1.5 times the minimum wage (meaning workers making nearly $11 in New York at the time of the study and $12 in California).

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, while the minimum in New York is $8 and in California $9.

The study was done for the Labor Department by the Eastern Research Group, a consulting firm in Lexington, Mass. It relied on data from the Census Bureau’s current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

“Younger workers are significantly more likely to be illegally paid below the minimum wage than older workers,” said the study, “The Social and Economic Effects of Wage Violations.” “Violation rates tend to be slightly lower for men than women.”

Mr. Weil said the nation was in a long-term period during which labor standards and wage compliance have eroded. “It’s unfortunate that we’re finding these violations when the minimum wage is at its lowest level in a long, long time,” after factoring in inflation, he said.

The study said these pay violations ended up costing taxpayers. As a rest of the violations, school breakfast and lunch programs spent an additional $15.6 million in California and $7.8 million in New York in fiscal 2011, the report said. And annual spending on food stamps rose nearly $11 million in California and $33.6 million in New York because of the violations.

In a speech prepared for delivery on Thursday, Tom Perez, the labor secretary, pledges stepped-up enforcement against such violations. “The law is only as effective as the political will of those enforcing,” says the text, which is to be given at a conference on wage enforcement at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

The number of investigators in the Wage and Hour Division has increased to 1,040 from 731 in 2008, the Labor Department said. Since 2009 the department has recovered $1 billion in back wages for workers who suffered minimum-wage and other violations.

Mr. Perez said most employers complied with wage laws, but that bad actors put pressure on others to break the law.

“When we crack down on unscrupulous employers, we send a strong message to similar employers about our vigilance,” his speech text says. “We create ripple effects, as a single investigation can resonate throughout that sector, influencing employer behavior and reforming a race-to-the-bottom culture.”

In recent years, workers have brought a flood of lawsuits accusing their employers of paying them less than the minimum wage and failing to pay overtime. For instance, Guadalupe Salazar, a cashier at a McDonald’s in Oakland, Calif., said her paychecks repeatedly missed a few hours of work time and overtime pay, sometimes bringing her overall pay below the minimum wage. She has joined one of several lawsuits against McDonald’s and several of its franchise operators, asserting that workers were cheated out of overtime, some of their hours were erased from timecards and they had to work off the clock.

McDonald’s denied any liability in Ms. Salazar’s case, and the Oakland franchisee insisted that Ms. Salazar had failed to establish illegal actions by the restaurant.

The study found that according to the Current Population Survey, 7,000 families in California and 8,000 in New York lived below the poverty line because of minimum-wage violations. But data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation showed a larger impact, estimating that 41,000 families in California and 26,000 in New York fell below the poverty line because of those violations.


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11) The story of how a white Phoenix cop killed an unarmed black man
By Terrence McCoy  
December 5 at 3:05 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/05/how-a-white-phoenix-cop-killed-an-unarmed-black-man/

It’s a pattern that by now has now become familiar. An officer confronts a man he believes is behaving suspiciously. The man runs. A struggle ensues.

The result, shown again this week in the killing of Rumain Brisbon, has been another death of an unarmed African American man at the hands of a white police officer. And now, as protesters deluge the streets of Chicago and New York to condemn what they describe as a failed justice system, some say his name deserves a spot next to those of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Many facts about Brisbon’s death, however, remain sketchy. To police, Brisbon was a man with a criminal record who may have been in the middle of drug deal when a lone police officer confronted him. To friends, 34-year-old Brisbon was a gentle father of four who was dropping off fast food for his kids at his family’s apartment.

One matter beyond dispute: He was not armed when a police officer fired two bullets, killing him in the presence of his girlfriend and 15-month-old child. “What happened here is a police officer murdered my client,” attorney Marci Kratter, who represented Brisbon in a prior DUI case, told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “And what the police say happened, it doesn’t make any sense at all. There’s something not right with it.”

Police said the officer responded appropriately under the circumstances, and investigators did find a gun and marijuana inside Brisbon’s black Cadillac. Maricopa County court records show Brisbon pleaded guilty to felony burglary and possession of marijuana in 1998, and to driving under the influence in 2009.

The events that led to Brisbon’s death began with a tip, Phoenix police spokesman Trent Clump told reporters on Wednesday. The tipster said that a drug deal was going down inside a black Cadillac SUV parked near a 7-Eleven. So a nearby 30-year-old officer, who wasn’t named by police, responded to the call, later approaching the car, reported the Arizona Republic.

Clump claimed the officer saw Brisbon exit the car and remove something from its rear. When the officer asked Brisbon to show his hands, the man allegedly put them in his waistband. That prompted the officer to draw his weapon, and Brisbon took off running. “Witnesses indicated to us that the suspect was verbally challenging to the officer,” the Arizona Republic quoted Crump saying.

When the officer caught Brisbon, there was a scuffle. What happened next is a little confusing.

According to reports, Brisbon somehow made it to the house of his girlfriend, who had opened the front door — and the cop and Brisbon literally stumbled inside. Clump said the officer thought he felt the butt of a gun jutting from Brisbon’s pocket. “During the struggle, Brisbon put his left hand in his pocket and the officer grabbed onto the suspect’s hand, while repeatedly telling the suspect to keep his hand in his pocket,” the spokesman said. “The officer believed he felt the handle of a gun while holding the suspect’s hand in his pocket.”

Two shots were fired, killing Brisbon. And only afterward did the officer discover what had been inside Brisbon’s pocket: a prescription pill vial containing Oxycodone pills. The original label had been scratched off. There was no gun.

Crump said, as the Phoenix New Times reported, the officer was in the right. Investigators did discover a semiautomatic handgun and some marijuana inside the SUV. “Let’s be very clear: The officer was doing what we expect him to do, and that is, investigating crimes that neighbors are telling him are occurring in that apartment complex. This one went bad, from the standpoint of how it ended, but the officer was doing exactly what we want him to do.”

To neighbors and Brisbon’s attorney, what happened was a little more complicated. They say there was no drug deal — but a fast-food delivery. And indeed, according to the Arizona Republic, french fries were strewn outside the apartment door. To them, it’s also unclear why the officer acted alone.

“I’m not sure why a lone police officer would have felt the need to go in there,” Kratter told The Post. “If the officer felt a pill bottle and believed it was a butt of a handgun, it calls into question his competence because I don’t know anyone who can mistake a plastic bottle for a butt of a gun. How much larger is a gun than a pill bottle?”

The officer was said to be distraught after the killing. Kratter, who launched an investigation into the killing, said she spoke to one neighbor who heard what had happened that night. “He didn’t near any screaming or anything like that,” she said. “He heard what sounded like scuffling, then gunshots, then the officer screaming, ‘F–k! F–k! F–k!’”

But it was too late. Brisbon died there. “Who’s gonna argue with police?” friend Brandon Dickerson, who had been with Brisbon, told the Arizona Republic. “He had no death wish.”




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12)  Officer Who Fatally Shot Tamir Rice Deemed Unfit for Duty in 2012
"Timothy Loehmann criticised by small Ohio force for breaking down while handling live gun and his performance was called ‘dismal’, records show"
By Tom McCarthy, Guardian UK
04 December 14
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27300-officer-who-fatally-shot-tamir-rice-deemed-unfit-for-duty-in-2012

police officer who shot a 12-year-old dead in a Cleveland park late last month had been judged unfit for police service two years earlier by a small suburban force where he worked for six months, according to records released on Wednesday.

Officer Timothy Loehmann, who killed Tamir Rice on 22 November, was specifically faulted for breaking down emotionally while handling a live gun. During a training episode at a firing range, Loehmann was reported to be “distracted and weepy” and incommunicative. “His handgun performance was dismal,” deputy chief Jim Polak of the Independence, Ohio, police department wrote in an internal memo.

The memo concludes with a recommendation that Loehmann be “released from the employment of the City of Independence”. Less than a week later, on 3 December 2012, Loehmann resigned.

In March of this year, Loehmann was hired by the Cleveland police department. It is unclear whether the department had seen the Independence memo at the time of Loehmann’s hiring.

“I have not received any instruction about it, and I have not received the file” from Independence, said Sgt Ali Pillow, a Cleveland police spokesman. He said the Cleveland department had not commented on whether it had seen the memo from Independence before Loehmann was hired.

On a Saturday afternoon last month, Loehmann and a partner, Frank Garmack, were dispatched to Cleveland’s Cudell Commons Park after a 911 caller reported “a guy” in the park was pointing a “probably fake” gun at people. Surveillance video recovered after the incident showed Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old, handling a pistol-sized pellet gun.

Loehmann shot the boy dead within two seconds of a police car driven by Garmack arriving to the park and pulling to a stop within feet of the child. In the video, released by Cleveland police a week ago, Loehmann appears to fire his gun as he opens the door to leave the police car.

Loehmann has been taken off patrol duties in Cleveland and the shooting is under internal review.

The Independence police memo describes an episode in which a supervising officer suspended gun training with Loehmann after Loehmann had an emotional breakdown about a girlfriend.

“During a state range qualification course, Ptl Loehmann was distracted and weepy,” Polak wrote, naming the trainer as Sgt Tinnirello. “[Loehmann] could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal. Sgt Tinnirello tried to work through this with Ptl Loehmann by giving him some time. But, after some talking it was clear to Sgt Tinnirello that the recruit was just not mentally prepared to be doing firearm training ...

“Ptl Loehmann continued with his emotional meltdown to a point where Sgt Tinnirello could not take him into the store, so they went to get something to eat and he continued to try and calm Ptl Loehmann. Sgt Tinnirello describes the recruit as being very downtrodden, melancholy with some light crying. Sgt Tinnirello later found this emotional perplexity was due to a personal issue with Ptl Loehmann’s on and off again girlfriend whom he was dealing with till 0400 hrs the night before. (Pti Loehmann was scheduled for 0800 the morning in question).”

Some of the comments made by Ptl Loehmann during this discourse were to the effect of, “I should have gone to NY”, “maybe I should quit”, “I have no friends”, “I only hang out with 73-year-old priests”, “I have cried every day for four months about this girl.”

In recommending Loehmann’s dismissal, Polak listed what he said were other performance shortcomings, including Loehmann’s having left his gun unlocked, lied to supervisors and failed to follow orders.

“Due to this dangerous loss of composure during live range training and his inability to manage this personal stress, I do not believe Ptl Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment,” Polak concludes. “For these reasons, I am recommending he be released from the employment of the city of Independence. I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”






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13) It Wasn’t Just the Chokehold
Eric Garner, Daniel Pantaleo and Lethal Police Tactics
By

One route to justice for Eric Garner was blocked on Wednesday, by a Staten Island grand jury’s confounding refusal to see anything potentially criminal in the police assault that killed him.

But the quest will continue. The fury that has prompted thousands to protest peacefully across New York City, and the swift promise by the Justice Department of a thorough investigation, may help ensure a just resolution to this tragedy. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton, too, have vowed that necessary changes will come from Mr. Garner’s death, promising that the Police Department will respond and improve itself, and redouble efforts to patrol communities in fairness and safety.

But among the many needed reforms, there is one simple area that risks being overlooked. Besides the banned chokehold used by Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who brought Mr. Garner down, throwing a beefy arm around his neck, there was lethal danger in the way Mr. Garner was subdued — on his stomach, with a pile of cops on his back.

This breaks a basic rule of safe arrests, especially for people who, like Mr. Garner, are overweight and have medical problems like asthma. When the New York medical examiner’s office ruled Mr. Garner’s death a homicide, it cited “compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.”

As early as 1995, a Department of Justice bulletin on “positional asphyxia” quoted the New York Police Department’s guidelines on preventing deaths in custody. “As soon as the subject is handcuffed, get him off his stomach. Turn him on his side or place him in a seated position.”

As Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner of New York City, told The Times: “Obese people especially, lying face down, prone, are unable to breathe when enough pressure is put on their back. The pressure prevents the diaphragm from going up and down, and he can’t inhale and exhale.”

Which is exactly what Mr. Garner was trying to tell the officers who were on top of him.

Mr. Garner’s death recalls a similar tragedy involving a less familiar name: Robert Ethan Saylor, a 26-year-old man with Down syndrome who was killed last year in a struggle with three off-duty county sheriff’s deputies at a movie theater in Frederick County, Md. Mr. Saylor was overweight. The officers who killed him were just as inept as Officer Pantaleo and his gang, though with one key difference: When they realized that Mr. Saylor was in distress, they tried to save him. Still, their efforts came too late, because mere moments in a facedown arrest can be deadly.The Garner killing must lead to major changes in policy, particularly in the use of “broken windows” policing — a strategy in which Officer Pantaleo specialized, according to a report in September by WNYC, which found that he had made hundreds of arrests since joining the force in 2007, leading to at least 259 criminal cases, all but a fraction of those involving petty offenses. The department must find a better way to keep communities safe than aggressively hounding the sellers of loose cigarettes.

And while defenders of the police like to point to thousands of nonfatal misdemeanor arrests as evidence that officers are acting in a way that is reasonable and safe, there can never be a justification for any lethal assault on an unarmed man, no justification for brutality.

The outrage in New York, echoed by anguished protesters in Ferguson, Mo., and in Cleveland, where the Justice Department has found a pattern of excessive force by the police, is based on a genuine fear of aggressive, abusive cops.

The results of such abuse can be seen in the final, quiet minutes of the horrifying video of the Garner assault. This is well after the chokehold, when Mr. Garner lies on the ground as officers and paramedics — who were later disciplined for their behavior — ignore him and bystanders ask: Why is no one giving him CPR?

This was the point where Mr. Garner was dying, the victim of Officer Pantaleo, but also of bad policy, poor training and heedlessness of the basics of anatomy and breathing.

 


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14) We Must Stop Police Abuse of Black Men
By ERIC L. ADAMS

I CAN recall it as if it were yesterday: looking into the toilet and seeing blood instead of urine. That was the aftermath of my first police encounter.

As a 15-year-old, living in South Jamaica, Queens, I was arrested on a criminal trespass charge after unlawfully entering and remaining in the home of an acquaintance. Officers took me to the 103rd Precinct — the same precinct where an unarmed Sean Bell was later shot and killed by the police — and brought me into a room in the basement. They kicked me in the groin repeatedly. Out of every part of my body, that’s what they targeted. Then I spent the night in Spofford juvenile detention center.

For seven days after that, I stared into the toilet bowl in my house at the blood I was urinating. I kept telling myself that if it didn’t clear up by the next day, I would share this shame and embarrassment with my mother, although I could never bring myself to start that conversation. When clear urine returned, I thought I was leaving that moment behind me. I never told anyone this, not even my mother, until I was an adult.

As I attempted to put that shame and attack on my manhood away, new horror stories kept compelling me to relive those memories: the nightmare experiences of Randolph Evans, Patrick Dorismond, Abner Louima and countless other young men have reminded me of my own secret. Think of all the secrets that young men of color are hiding. How many are concealing some dark truth of the abuse they endured, and what is that darkness doing to them?

In order to finally bring this darkness into the light of day, our nation must address the foundation of this crisis. That starts with acknowledging that the training taught in police academies across the country is not being applied in communities of color. After six months in the police academy, that instruction is effectively wiped out by six days of being taught by veteran cops on the streets.

I learned this myself firsthand. I didn’t want any more children to go through what I endured, so I sought to make change from the inside by joining the police department.

Hours after coming out of the police academy, I was told something as a new rookie officer: You’d rather be tried by 12 jurors than carried by six pallbearers. In my impressionable first days, I saw officers leave the precinct every day touching the lockers of their fallen brothers. They started their shift on the defensive, thinking about protecting themselves, as opposed to the communities they served, regardless of the complexion of those communities. One of my white fellow officers once told me that if he saw a white individual with a gun, he took extra care for himself and the individual. When he saw a black individual with a gun, he took care only for himself.

These are the lessons to which I was exposed, and the reality of what policing communities of color has been, not just in New York City but across America. There is a legacy of inequity that did not just appear overnight, but was carved into the culture of law enforcement over decades.

There is reluctance on the part of police leadership, which has long believed in the nightstick and quick-trigger-finger justice, to effectively deal with officers who have documented and substantiated records of abuse. These individuals need to be removed from the force. That is an essential component of the larger response we must have to address this history of abuse.

We cannot continue to approach policing in an antiquated fashion, and that certainly includes technology. Technology has been used as a crime-fighting tactic, but not as a tool to determine what happens during a police action. New York City has taken the right step in putting body cameras on police officers, but what about cameras on guns themselves? While I was a state senator, I introduced a proposal to allow such devices, which would not interfere with the function of the weapon; this proposal deserves to be revisited. In fact, we can go further, with cameras on police vehicles as well. Not only will technology shine a light on the darkness of these police encounters, it will be significant in advancing community trust that accountability does in fact apply.Equally important, especially in the wake of what has taken place after the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, is reform to our grand jury system. Grand juries were established in England in the 12th and 13th centuries, a vestige of a time when people needed to be protected from unfair prosecution from the king and others. There was a necessary element of secrecy — one that need not apply in cases involving police misconduct.

Open, preliminary hearings in court can and should determine if a case should be stepped up to a trial. Additionally, the handling of police shootings should be wholly separated from local grand juries. These bodies cannot handle cases involving local police officers on whom they rely every day.

Special grand juries should be convened for police-related incidents, and independent agencies must gather evidence even before they convene, at the time of police encounters where a death has occurred; the evidence gathered at that moment is the evidence that will shape whether there is an indictment, as well as whether there will be a fair trial based on the facts.

All of these ideas need to be moved forward under the leadership of our president, our governors, the mayors of our major cities and our law enforcement leadership. If we fail to take advantage of this moment that history has laid on our doorstep, we are doomed to more abuse, more division and more chaos.

When my son was 15, he was stopped by the police in a movie theater for no apparent reason. He showed his ID and explained that his father was a retired police captain and a state senator. The response was “So what?” It doesn’t and shouldn’t matter who he is. He shouldn’t have had that experience at all. And until that changes, for all men of color, real reform will never come.


Eric L. Adams is the Brooklyn borough president, a retired New York Police Department captain and the co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.


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