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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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Millions March! Black Lives Matter!
#Day of Action #Day of Resistance
Ferguson National Response Network
Join the nation in disrupting business as usual and taking a stand against police brutality.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13TH, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
2:00 P.M.
FERRY BUILDING
Mass March from the Ferry Building to Civic Center
OAKLAND, CA
2:00 P.M.
OSCAR GRANT PLAZA
14th and Broadway
SANTA ROSA, CA
2:00 P.M.
OLD COURTHOUSE SQUARE
50 Old Courthouse Square
SANTA CRUZ, CA
1:00 P.M.
CLOCK TOWER
Mission Street and Pacific Avenue
Listing of planned Response Events for #Ferguson and all police brutality & racial injustice nationwide.
http://fergusonresponse.tumblr.com/
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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!
• 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
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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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
Secretary of the Army John McHugh
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
Washington, DC 20310-0101
The Judge Advocate General
2200 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-2200
2200 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-2200
Army Clemency and Parole Board
251 18th St, Suite 385
Arlington, VA 22202-3532
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:Attn: Boards Branch
U.S. Disciplinary Barracks
1301 N. Warehouse Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304
- 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
Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea’s legal fees at this critical stage!
> > > Please donate today! < < <
> > > Please donate today! < < <
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
Out of jail!
Rasmea is with her family and returning home to Chicago.
Members of the Rasmea Defense Committee from Chicago and Detroit / Dearborn just welcomed Rasmea back from 5 weeks in a Port Huron, Michigan, jail. She arrived at the U.S. Marshal's office in Detroit for processing at approximately noon today, Dec. 11, and was greeted shortly thereafter by friends and family, who are bringing her home to Chicago now.
She looks strong, and is upbeat and excited to see more of her friends, family, and supporters soon. The defense committee wants to again thank everyone for their phone calls, letters, rallies, protests, and all the other activism that helped us get Rasmea released. She sends her love and appreciation to all, and graciously asks us to be ready for the next stage--winning the appeal and exonerating her fully.
Rasmea will be meeting with her attorneys in the next few days, and they will begin establishing strategies for the sentencing on March 10th and the appeal, respectively. We will reach out to everyone soon, and call on defense committees and supporters across the country to gear up for another intense #Justice4Rasmea campaign.
But for now, let's celebrate knowing that Rasmea will be back home safe, and ready to get back to her work with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) and its Arab Women's Committee.
We will be welcoming her home publicly for the first time next Wednesday, December 17th, at the AAAN's event showcasing the Wishah popular dance troupe directly from Ramallah in Palestine. Join us to celebrate her, and Palestinian culture and resilience, by purchasing your tickets here!
Stay updated at uspcn.org and stopfbi.net.
Rasmea Defense Committee
Keep updated at uspcn.org and stopfbi.net.
Rasmea Defense Committee
www.uspcn.org
www.stopfbi.net
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
[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:
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) The story of how a white Phoenix cop killed an unarmed black man
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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2) 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"
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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3) It Wasn’t Just the Chokehold
Eric Garner, Daniel Pantaleo and Lethal Police Tactics
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4) We Must Stop Police Abuse of Black Men
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5) Hope and Anger at the Garner Protests
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6) Police Killings Reveal Chasms Between Races
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7) Eric Garner and the Legal Rules That Enable Police Violence
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8) Remains of Student in Mexico Identified
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9) Shielding Children From Talk of Ferguson and Garner Cannot Protect Them
By Rachel Swarns
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10) Police Violence Seems to Result in No Punishment
By
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/nyregion/police-violence-seems-to-result-in-no-punishment.html?ref=nyregion
When a grand jury on Staten Island declined, on Wednesday, to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the killing of Eric Garner, some critics blamed Staten Island itself, easily equating it with a culture of police coddling and conservatism. But grand juries, so willing to issue indictments in so many instances, rarely do so in cases involving police officers who have killed civilians. And they have failed to do so in far more liberal environments — in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The year 1999 was a horrific one for police shootings in New York City. On Feb. 4, Amadou Diallo was killed in the doorway of a Bronx apartment building after the police, mistakenly believing he was reaching into his pocket for a gun, fired 41 shots. Several months later, at the end of August, Gidone Busch, a mentally disturbed Orthodox Jewish man, was shot a dozen times in Borough Park in Brooklyn by four police officers, after he struck one on the arm with a hammer. A few days later, in September, an unarmed man named Richard Watson was fatally shot by the police in Harlem after he fled on foot in the wake of an accusation that he had evaded a taxi fare.
Mr. Watson’s death represented the fifth fatal shooting by police officers in four weeks. The new millennium would get underway with the killing of Patrick Dorismond in March 2000 after an undercover narcotics agent shot him outside a Midtown Manhattan bar; he too was without a weapon. None of the police officers involved in the Busch, Watson or Dorismond cases faced criminal charges. Officers in the Diallo case were acquitted. Thirteen years after the shooting, the Police Department gave one of them, Kenneth Boss, the right to use his gun again.
In the current moment, police violence, like campus sexual assault, seems to be in a pandemic phase. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that 461 felony suspects had been killed by police officers across the country last year, the highest figure in two decades. We are possibly, if not surely, experiencing a crisis of manhood in which the young respond to their fears in a time of rising insecurity with a concomitant blast of brutality. Darren Wilson, who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; Officer Pantaleo; and Peter Laing, the police officer who killed Akai Gurley last month in the Pink Houses in Brooklyn, are all in their 20s.
Whatever the collective psychological causes, it is almost certain that the absence of real repercussions impedes restraint.
“If you believe in deterrence theory,” as Jeffrey A. Fagan, a Columbia University law professor who specializes in policing, put it to me, “then you believe that people will refrain from wrongdoing if they believe that punishment is real. But the legal system is incapable of creating the same kind of deterrent effects for police officers.” Right now, there would appear to be no obvious downside to the use of excessive force beyond personal upset and dislocation.
Apart from that are the broad latitude and deference that prosecutors give police officers in these cases. “The way the questioning often goes, it allows the officer to set forward a narrative that gives a series of justifications for his actions,” Professor Fagan said. That narrative has to be challenged, and in many cases it isn’t.
As anyone who has watched “Law & Order” knows, the relationship between police officers and prosecutors is typically steeped in fealty, which is why advocates of police reform have called for independent prosecutors to be assigned to cases involving potential criminal misconduct on the part of the police.“Is there hand-in-hand complicity? I believe there is,” Jeffry L. Emdin told me. Mr. Emdin, a former assistant district attorney in the Bronx, represented the family of Ramarley Graham, an unarmed teenager who was shot and killed by a police officer, Richard Haste, two years ago. “The district attorney’s office works daily with members of the N.Y.P.D.,” Mr. Emdin said. “I’ve had A.D.A.s vouch for the credibility of officers coming under civil rights violations,” he told me, referring to prosecutors who could be expected to bring charges.
In one instance he had a client who alleged that a police officer broke his nose in a precinct house. “The D.A.'s office said, ‘No, no, he couldn’t have done that.’ ”
The city believes that requiring police officers to wear cameras, a program that is to begin immediately, will help reduce instances of transgression. It’s hard to absorb the logic of that after the Garner decision, given that the existence of a video demonstrating the use of a chokehold on Mr. Garner failed to persuade the grand jury that Officer Pantaleo’s actions even demanded a criminal trial.
In a television appearance on Wednesday night, the city’s public advocate, Letitia James, called upon Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to push for independent prosecutors in these cases. Asked about this the next day, Governor Cuomo, whose initial response to the Garner decision was relatively dispassionate, deflected. “I think we should look at the whole system,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any one answer.”
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11) Body Cameras Worn by Police Officers Are No ‘Safeguard of Truth,’ Experts Say
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12) #BlackLivesMatter Takes the Field: A Weekend of Athletes Speaking Out
Dave Zirin
The marches in the streets are not done. The die-ins disrupting traffic are not done. Any kind of closure for the families of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, and so many others is far from done. So why should anyone be surprised that the St. Louis Rams were not done? A week after five players raised their arms in the now iconic protest pose of "hands up don't shoot," wide receiver Kenny Britt took the field with the names “Michael Brown” and “Trayvon Martin” written on his cleats. His teammate Jared Cook had the words "I can't breathe," the last gasp of Staten Island's Eric Garner as a police officer cut off his oxygen with a chokehold, written on his wristband. Teammate Davin Joseph had the same phrase written on his cleats.
They were not alone. Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush, who was attacked by Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League for comparing the late Michael Brown’s hometown of Ferguson to Gaza on Instagram, was not cowed into silence and wore a shirt that read “I can't breathe” during warm-ups. He said, "Honestly, I've always been the quiet kid. I've always been the one who's reserved, to kind of sit back and not really get into politics and things like that. But I don't know why I just felt some kind of ... I guess the situation just touched me."
Bush's mom has also been a police offer for twenty years, and yes I wish I could be a fly on the wall at the Bush house this Christmas.
Browns cornerback Johnson Bademosi also wore an "I can't breathe" shirt before game-time, as did San Diego Chargers linebacker Melvin Ingram. Then there was Brandian Ross of the Raiders, who came out during player introductions without a helmet and with his hands up high, and Washington defensive lineman Chris Baker, who raised his hands up after a sack. Although, in Baker's case, the gesture of anti-racism while wearing a Redskins uniform probably won't make it onto a protest poster anytime soon.
These actions by NFL players come the day after NBA star Derrick Rose wore an "I can't breathe" shirt during warm-ups, which prompted the NBA's number one icon, LeBron James,to say, "I thought it was great. I'm looking for one."
Then there is All-Star guard Damian Lillard who posted this gut-punch of a political cartoonby Rik Sansone to his Instagram account, causing the image to go viral among sports fans and protesters alike.
Two members of the Oregon Ducks basketball team also raised their hands up during the pledge of allegiance the week after Knox College basketball player Ariyana Smith, playing near Ferguson in Claremont, Missouri, lay on the floor of the court and would not move for four and a half minutes, to represent the four and a half hours that Michael Brown was left in the street after dying at the hands of Darren Wilson.
Each of these actions has the effect of amplifying the impact of a new struggle for human dignity in the face of racism. It has has found expression in all fifty states and in solidarity actions in cities around the world all with the message that black lives matter. Seeing the movement impinge upon the highly sanitized, deeply authoritarian world of sports is not only a reflection of just how widespread the outpouring of anger has been. These athletic protests also shape the movement, giving more people the confidence to get in the streets and puncturing the self-imposed bubbles of those who want to pretend that all is well in the world. It is politicizing sports fans and educating those who think that sports in general—and athletes in particular—have nothing to offer the struggle for a better world.
Yes, it is also provoking a great deal of ugliness among a segment of fans on social media, not to mention snide smirks from some sports writers who once a year find time to praise people like Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Arthur Ashe, and others tucked away in the past. They should listen to Lions coach Jim Caldwell, one of only four African-American head coaches in the NFL. When asked about his players getting political the normally taciturn Caldwell said:
I grew up in the 60s, where everybody was socially conscious. I believe in it. I'd be a hypocrite if I stood up here and told you any differently, because more than likely, some of those protests that Dr (Martin Luther) King and some of the others that took a part in non-violent protests, is the reason why I'm standing here in front of you today.This is a similar moment. Except this movement is not only explicitly about the right to live a life with more opportunity, but the right to simply live. As Howard Zinn said, "You can't be neutral on a moving train." The train is leaving the station, even in the world of sports.
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13) Grand Jury System, With Exceptions, Favors the Police in Fatalities
The circumstances of the case, like others before it and others that would follow, in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, were familiar. A police officer killed an unarmed man. The officer claimed he acted appropriately. A grand jury declined to bring charges.
But the state’s case in Charlotte, N.C., against Officer Randall Kerrick, would not end there. The state attorney general’s office, which inherited the case after the local prosecutor recused himself, quickly resubmitted the case to a different grand jury.
Evidence was reheard. Twice as many as witnesses were called. And in January, the second grand jury indicted Officer Kerrick on charges of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Jonathan Ferrell, 24, a former college football player.The extraordinary steps taken in North Carolina — along with the recent grand jury decisions to bring no charges against white police officers who killed unarmed black men in New York and Missouri — illustrate how the justice system can favor the police, often shielding them from murder or serious manslaughter charges.
The balance tips toward the police from the start: In most felony cases, an arrest is made and a grand jury indictment follows within a prescribed period of time. But in police fatality cases, prosecutors generally use special grand juries sitting for lengthy periods to investigate and gather evidence before determining if an arrest and indictment are warranted.
Another hurdle is the law itself. Most states give officers wide discretion to use whatever force they reasonably believe is necessary to make an arrest or to protect themselves, a standard that hinges on the officer’s perceptions of danger during the encounter, legal scholars and criminologists say.
“The whole process is really reluctant to criminalize police behavior,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a former prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. “The grand jurors are, the jurors are, the judges are, the appellate courts are.”
The recent decisions to refrain from bringing charges on Staten Island and in Ferguson have sparked protests because, among other things, they seem to defy logic: Shouldn’t the cases be heard at trial, many protesters have asked, and be decided by a full jury?
The questions have strengthened calls for wholesale changes in the grand jury system. Some elected leaders in New York have called for special prosecutors, or the attorney general, to investigate all fatal police encounters. Others say the current process should be stripped of its cloak of secrecy.
No precise figures exist for the number of people killed by the police in the United States, but police departments each year voluntarily report about 400 “justifiable police homicides” to the Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is an incomplete count, criminologists say
Rarely do deaths lead to murder or manslaughter charges. Research by Philip M. Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University, reports that 41 officers were charged with either murder or manslaughter in shootings while on duty over a seven-year period ending in 2011. Over that same period, police departments reported 2,600 justifiable homicides to the F.B.I.
Officer Kerrick was the first Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer charged in a fatal shooting in more than 30 years. He was one of several officers who responded to a 911 call, placed by a woman who was alarmed by a stranger knocking at her door at 2:30 a.m.
Moments earlier, Mr. Ferrell, a former safety for Florida A&M University, had gotten into a car accident, and his vehicle had crashed into the trees. He had walked a half-mile or so to seek help. Instead, Mr. Ferrell, who was black, was mistaken for a burglar.
Officers arrived 11 minutes after the call and approached Mr. Ferrell. Police officials said Mr. Ferrell ran toward the officers and was hit with a Taser. When he continued to press forward, Officer Kerrick fired 12 bullets, 10 of which struck Mr. Ferrell.
Charles G. Monnett III, a lawyer for Mr. Ferrell’s parents, said the indictment would not have come had the state prosecutor not taken the case over from the Mecklenburg County district attorney. “The district attorney’s office works way too closely with the local police department and individual officers to be able to objectively look at these cases,” he said.
For most felonies, grand jury hearings are swift, bare-bones proceedings. Prosecutors present enough evidence to show it is probable that the defendant, who rarely testifies, committed a crime, and ask the jury to vote for an indictment. Several cases are usually processed in a single day.
But because most prosecutors impanel a special grand jury to investigate police-related deaths, they insulate themselves from the final decision, while appearing to fulfill the public desire for an independent review, legal experts said. The inquiries often go on for weeks or months, with testimony from several witnesses.
The proceeding is transformed into a trial of sorts, behind closed doors but without cross-examination. Prosecutors control what witnesses appear and in what order, legal scholars said.
In most cases, the officer provides his or her account; prosecutors can decide to let an officer’s version of events go unchallenged or to discredit it with cross-examination. They can do the same with other witnesses.
“If the prosecutor wants an indictment she or he is probably going to get one because they do have so much control over the grand jury,” said Andrew D. Leipold, a law professor at the University of Illinois who is an expert on grand juries. “The accountability for the decision to charge or not to charge rests with the prosecutor, not with the grand jury.”
The grand jury investigating the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island sat for nine weeks and heard 50 witnesses, including Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was videotaped as he used his arm to choke Mr. Garner from behind during a fight to subdue him. A medical examiner ruled Mr. Garner died because of the compression of his chest and neck during the struggle, but also listed his obesity, asthma and high blood pressure as contributing factors. Mr. Garner said several times that he could not breathe.
Geoffrey P. Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who studies the use of force, said police officers are rarely indicted when they express remorse to jurors, admit they made a mistake, and stress that they were following their training, as Officer Pantaleo had. In shooting cases, officers often testify that they perceived a deadly threat and acted in self-defense. This stance can inoculate them even if the threat later turns out to be false.
Pete Hautzinger, the district attorney in Mesa County, Colorado, said the notion prosecutors lead grand juries to a predetermined conclusion is false. Though he rarely uses a grand jury on most felonies, he chose to present evidence to a special grand jury in 2010 against a state trooper, Evan Lawyer, who had shot and killed an unarmed man after he refused to open his front door. The prosecutor said he wanted a “sounding board” to validate his belief that there was enough evidence not only to warrant a trial, but eventually convict the trooper.
“How do ordinary people react to these facts, and what do they think is right here?” he said. Trooper Lawyer was indicted and eventually acquitted at trial.
Even when there is no hint that a victim was armed, it is difficult to bring a homicide charge if the officer claims the death was an accident, legal scholars say. Murder and manslaughter require proof that the officer intended to kill or harm the victim. To bring a second-degree manslaughter charge, one must show that the officer recklessly disregarded the risk inherent in his or her actions. Criminally negligent homicide requires a finding that the officer’s actions were “a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe.”
The jury’s only guide through the thicket of legal concepts is the prosecutor. “The notion that average people are going to delve into these complex legal issues and get them right is bizarre,” Professor O’Donnell said. “You are doing a deep dive on issues of justification, criminal negligence and recklessness.”
Still, many prosecutors reject the notion that they control the grand juries’ conclusions. They also point out that the panels have worked for centuries to protect the rights of the accused and shield witnesses who might otherwise not testify.
“It tends to be a much more full exchange about gathering the evidence than individuals on the outside understand or believe,” said Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney. “It is a secret process. Folks don’t know that much about it. But in practice, particularly in long investigations, I think the grand jurors are very active.”
He added: “I’ve had grand jurors which were very aggressive in trying to get me to put in evidence that I had not previously considered to put in.”
Jack Begg, Erik Eckholm and Hannah Fairfield contributed reporting.
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14) Paid to Promote Eye Drug, and Prescribing It Widely
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15) Military-Style Technology Finds Way Into School District Safety Measures
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/education/military-style-technology-finds-way-into-school-district-safety-measures.html?ref=us
METHUEN, Mass. — With a rapid-response team and regular lockdown drills, the school district here, like many across the country, has long been steeling itself for the nightmare scenario of a school shooting.
But over the past two years, a new high-tech approach has been tested at one of the schools here — officials will not say which one — to see whether it is possible to react more effectively.
Engineers from a company called Shooter Detection Systems have installed infrared sensors and microphones that can pick up the sound of gunfire and immediately notify school and law enforcement officials where and when it has occurred. It was installed free of charge, and school officials were hoping they could find the money to put the system, which costs between $20,000 and $100,000, into more schools.
It does not stop the first shot, but company officials say the system can shorten an attack by taking the human element out of alerting the authorities.“The time it takes for police to even be notified can take many, many minutes,” said Christian Connors, the company’s chief executive. “What our device does is lessen the time.”
But there is debate about whether military-style measures like a gunshot-detection system are as valuable as more prevention-minded methods. Many experts say limited resources may be better spent on mental health services, training for teachers and students on what to do if their peers talk about bringing a gun to school, or on officers trained to keep schools safe.
Officials in this city of about 50,000, on the New Hampshire border, say their district’s five buildings are no more likely than any other to experience a mass shooting, although they do perimeter lockdowns from time to time when there is crime in the area. But Police Chief Joseph Solomon said he nevertheless tried to stay ahead on school safety practices.
“You can’t just look at your location — you have to look at how is the world changing,” Chief Solomon said. “You see a propensity for violence to increase.”
Company officials say they have tested the system with thousands of rounds of fire, when students were not in school. In the first public demonstration of the system last month, a police officer posing as a gunman with an AR-15-style assault rifle fired blank rounds in the lobby and school hallways. The police said the system helped them apprehend the “shooter” in less than three minutes.
Mr. Connors used to work on market development for military technology that locates incoming fire, which has been used in Afghanistan. He founded the company last year, he said, to commercialize the technology.
“We look at it like a smoke alarm. We have procedures for that,” Mr. Connors said. “We have no technology for gunfire.”
Mr. Connors said his system had been installed in a school in California, and another installation is planned in Virginia. The company has corporate orders for the system and has tested it in a major airport, he said.
Another company, SST, which makes shot-detection systems for city streets, is rolling out a similar system at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Officials here and at the college emphasized that they used preventive methods, too.
It was easy to persuade the administration to pay for the system, said John Buckovich, the chief of public safety at the Savannah art college. He said the system would hasten the arrival of law enforcement officials in a shooting even if those on campus were scrambling to flee or protect themselves. “Their first reaction may not be to call 911,” Mr. Buckovich said.
He added, “If you can reduce the time that it takes law enforcement to respond on the scene, then you reduce the chance of injury to persons in the situation like this.”
The demonstration here was warmly received by residents. Chief Solomon suggested that such systems needed to become a building code standard. Representative Niki Tsongas, a Democrat, who watched the demonstration, praised what she saw.
“It is the same technology that has been utilized thousands of times by our military to keep soldiers safe in some of the most dangerous locations around the globe,” Ms. Tsongas said in a statement.
But school safety experts questioned whether technology developed with Afghan battlefields in mind was optimal for schools.
“There’s an illusion that having all these video cameras, metal detectors, sensors, SWAT kinds of people on campus makes the place safer,” said Ron Avi Astor, a professor of social work and education at the University of Southern California. “The problem is from an educational perspective: It doesn’t feel safer. It feels like a prison.”
Mr. Astor said he would prefer to see more effort put into educating students and teachers on recognizing and responding to threats as they emerge. “This is a social issue that needs to be solved, that can only be solved through education,” he said.
Kenneth Trump, a school safety consultant, compared the technology to the bulletproof whiteboards and backpacks that have been marketed to schools and parents since the Sandy Hook school shooting two years ago in Newtown, Conn.
Mr. Trump said he thought this was “one of the many well-intended but not well-thought-out items that’s being pitched to pre-K-through-12 school environments in a post-Sandy Hook world.”
“We need to go back and focus on a lot of the proven, reliable things,” he said, “versus feeding into the emotional frenzy that a lot of these efforts over the past two years have tried to address.”
There are concerns, too, about whether the design of this system can protect victims in shootings that can end in just a few minutes.
“With this system, somebody wants to kill someone, they’ll just come on campus with a gun and by the time there’s an indication that there’s gunfire, the target of the perpetrator is dead,” said Ronald D. Stephens, the executive director of the National School Safety Center. He added that he would not recommend that every district buy such systems.
Proponents of the system argue that anything that can reduce response time in a school shooting has value.
“This is just another step in the direction of making responses more effective to the shooters,” said Bernard James, a law professor at Pepperdine University. He said he expected such technology eventually to be integrated into existing alarm systems.
In town, parents welcomed what they viewed as another layer of security for children. Darlene Franzone, 54, said she hoped the system might be a deterrent, adding that she often worries about shootings in public places, like movie theaters or the gym.
“You just don’t know anymore,” Ms. Franzone said.
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16) Mom of Boy Shot by Police Wants Officer Convicted
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17) I Can’t Be Forgiven for Abu GhraibThe Torture Report Reminds Us of What America Was
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18) Georgia’s Merciless Push to Kill
Injustice in Robert Wayne Holsey’s Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/opinion/injustice-in-robert-wayne-holseys-case.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region
Even by the abysmal standards of lawyering that defendants in capital trials regularly endure, Robert Wayne Holsey’s case stands out.
In 1997, Mr. Holsey was convicted and sentenced to death for killing a Georgia sheriff’s deputy named Will Robinson, who had pulled him over for robbing a convenience store. Despite evidence that Mr. Holsey was intellectually disabled — which should have barred him from execution under the United States Supreme Court’s earlier rulings — his lawyer neglected to make that argument at trial. Mr. Holsey was executed on Tuesday evening after the Supreme Court declined to stay his execution.
The evidence of Mr. Holsey’s mental deficits included an I.Q. test score of 70 when he was 15. In school, his intellectual functioning did not move past a fourth-grade level. But under Georgia law, a defendant is required to prove his intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt — the strictest standard in the country and one unmoored from scientific reality.
Mr. Holsey’s new lawyers challenged Georgia’s standard under a Supreme Court decision issued in May that reaffirmed and clarified its 2002 ban on executing intellectually disabled people. Laws that do not provide a fair chance to prove intellectual disability, the court wrote, “deny the basic dignity the Constitution protects.” The justices should have stayed Mr. Holsey’s death sentence on that ground alone. The egregious failures of his trial lawyer, Andy Prince, added to the injustice.
During the trial, Mr. Prince, a lifelong alcoholic, was drinking a quart of vodka a day. He was also facing his own criminal investigation for stealing more than $100,000 in client funds. Before the trial was over, he was arrested and charged with brandishing a gun, threatening to shoot his black neighbors and yelling racial slurs at them. (Mr. Prince is white, and Mr. Holsey is black.)
Mr. Prince, who was disbarred and sent to prison for theft of funds, later said, “I shouldn’t have been representing anybody in any case.”
Georgia, like other “death belt” states, will go to great lengths to execute the people it has sentenced to death. It is hard to understand how the Supreme Court, which spoke so clearly on the unconstitutionality of executing intellectually disabled people, could stand aside and allow Mr. Holsey to die.
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19) Dollree Mapp, Who Defied Police Search in Landmark Case, Is Dead
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