Next Tuesday marks the end of the first year in office for South Korea's President Park, Geun-hye.
On that day, South Korea's trade union confederation (the KCTU) will be holding a nationwide "people's strike" together with broader social movements including organisations of peasants, the urban poor, small shop keepers, students, and youth.
They'll be marching under the slogan "After one year under Park's Government, we cannot stand it anymore!"
Human and trade union rights have been attacked and democracy in the country has been undermined since Park came to power.
Organising strikes in President Park's Korea is increasingly dangerous. Harsh repression is becoming the norm. Unions are under attack.
The Korean Teachers Union has been de-registered and the Korean Government Employees Union refused registration. Union buildings have been raided. There are eleven trade union leaders behind bars at the moment, some of them still awaiting trial, some already convicted. Four have just been bailed for trial later.
In solidarity with the 15 union leaders in prison or on bail, and with the KCTU, the global trade union movement is calling for the release of all imprisoned trade unionists.
That's why the International Trade Union Confederation has launched this new campaign on LabourStart:
http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=2183&src=lsmm
It will take you less than one minute to show your support for our brothers and sisters on the front lines in the fight for democracy in Korea.
Once you've signed the campaign, please don't stop there -- spread the word in your union and workplace.
I know that we can count on your support.
Thank you!
Eric Lee
P.S. There's been a major show of support for Canadian workers on strike since September 2013 at Crown Holdings. The Toronto and York Region Labour Council has voted to boycott Carnival, whose CEO is board member of Crown. Have you supported this campaign yet? Please do so and spread the word.
Copyright © 2014 LabourStart, All rights reserved.
http://www.labourstart.org
Our mailing address is:
LabourStart
Unit 168, Lee Valley Technopark
Ashley Road, Tottenham
London, England N17 3LN
United Kingdom
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AN URGENT FUNDRAISER FOR LYNNE STEWART'S MEDICAL NEEDS CONTINUEShttp://lynnestewart.org/
LYNNE STEWART HAS JUST BEEN DENIED MEDICAL BENEFITS. SHE CAN'T RE-APPLY UNTIL JULY! SHE IS IN URGENT NEED OF OUR HELP NOW!
Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs. Lynne’s Stage 4 breast cancer spread a year ago to both lungs, back, bones and lymph nodes. Now 74, she has lost weight and has trouble breathing; doctors estimate her lifespan at 12 months. Lynne will soon begin treatment requiring her to pay deductibles and co-payments. To boost the odds, she’ll use a special diet, vitamins, and other healing methods – some costly and none covered by insurance.
Lynne’s spirit is indomitable – help her fight to survive!
“I fought lions, I fought tigers, and I’m not going to let cancer get me,” Stewart said.
Lynne has always come to the aid of those who needed her. Now it’s our turn to stand by Lynne.
SEND LYNNE A DONATION TO:
On line at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lynne-stewart-s-medical-fund
Or by USPS to:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street?
Brooklyn, New York 11216
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Tell Maj. Gen. Buchanan why Chelsea
deserves to be free!
 |
Please write a letter to Convening Authority Major General Buchanan today urging him to reduce Chelsea’s sentence!
We began collecting letters to include in PVT Manning’s clemency packet last fall. We expected that the military would finalize her record of trial last December, and that she could then submit her application to Maj. Gen. Buchanan by the end of 2013. Just like so many times before, however, the military’s process has slowed Chelsea’s ability to defend her rights. Defense attorney David Coombs now estimates that it will be at least another month before the clemency application can be submitted.
Want to make sure decision-makers know why you believe Chelsea deserves to go free? If you haven’t done so yet, please write a short letter to Maj. Gen. Buchanan. Hundreds of people have already submitted letters for us to use, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and award-winning author Alice Walker.
As Alice Walker wrote:
Private Manning was the one soldier willing to speak out against what he thought was wrong. When others silently followed orders, Manning could not. Pvt. Manning is a humanist, meaning he sees humanity before nationality, and values human life above all else. When he released documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, he wanted the American people, and the world, to judge for themselves if the U.S. military was properly valuing human life in Iraq and Afghanistan. As taxpayers who fund that military, we deserve that opportunity.Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Get on the bus to Sacramento!
Education for All! Stop Privatization!
Defend Community Colleges!
Monday, March 3, 2014
The Save CCSF Coalition is organizing for the annual March in March that brings students, faculty and community to the state capital to let our elected officials know that education is a right and should be accessible to all.
If you would like to ride the bus to Sacramento, fill out the attached form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_q1tsRv2RvYRfOsLQ6RbNoas5FQaZUAaeAqhDpVrqBc/viewform
If you would like to donate for the cost of the bus and other Save CCSF actions, please make a check payable to SAVE CCSF and write Bus for March in March in the memo and mail to:
Rodger Scott
1249 Hayes St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Contact Nancy Reiko Kato at nrkato@rocketmail.com or 415.994.5785 for more info or to get involved.
www.saveccsf.org * info@saveccsf.org
--
Check out the Save CCSF Webpage here:
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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Take to the streets on International Women’s Day
Speak-out
Saturday, March 8, 12:00 Noon
24th and Mission Sts.
San Francisco, California
Info: sf@defendwomensrights.org or 415-375-9502
Women’s Rights Are Under AttackWhat do we do? Stand up, fight back!
Stop violence against women
Drop the charges against Marissa Alexander
Full reproductive rights now
On March 8, International Women’s Day, WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend) will hold actions in cities across the United States. We will be taking to the streets in defense of women’s rights, which are under attack on many different fronts.
Violence against women is an epidemic in U.S. society. One in three women will experience violence from their partner in their lifetime. But the epidemic isn’t limited to sexual assault. 53 percent of anti-LGBTQ homicides are against transgender women. Domestic violence is a widespread problem that is not remotely addressed by the sexist, racist, and bigoted (in)justice system.
Marissa Alexander’s case—among many others—highlights the contradictions of a society that punishes victims of abuse when they defend themselves. Marissa Alexander is a 33-year-old African American woman, mother, and survivor of domestic violence. Under mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending herself against an abuser in the same state that let George Zimmerman walk free. Though the original sentence was thrown out by the judge, Marissa is still being prosecuted. All charges against Marissa should be dropped! We must stand with Marissa, demand her freedom, and fight to end all forms of violence against women!
The society we live in not only condones and minimizes sexual assault and all violence against women, but blames and criminalizes the victims. Last year, in Stuebenville, Ohio, authorities covered up rape until the community protested. Two years prior, school authorities and the police colluded to punish 17-year-old Rachel Bradshaw when she reported being sexually assaulted. We must stand up against this system that protects the attackers and isolates the victims.
The treatment of women in a society is a direct reflection of their position in that society. In this society, women are not guaranteed full rights, either to equal pay or to control over our own bodies. At the same time that violence against women is condoned, reproductive rights are under heightened attack. The year 2013 nearly broke the all-time record for the most new restrictions on abortion passed in a single year.
More anti-choice laws have been passed in the last three years than in the entire previous decade. While Roe v. Wade still stands, in many places women are unable to actually get a safe and legal abortion. Focusing particularly on Southern and Midwestern states, the right-wing campaign is trying to chip away at the rights won by the Roe v Wade decision. They were defeated in Albuquerque in November but have been successful in other states and have introduced new legislation that will be considered this year in North Dakota, Ohio and elsewhere.
We must unite and fight the economic, political and social attacks on women’s rights. It is up to us to make 2014 a turning point for women’s rights! We will not allow the politicians to define 2014 as a year of continued attacks on women’s reproductive rights, which is why we must take to the streets to stop these attacks. International Women’s Day—a day of protest and celebration across the world that originated with the protest of women against exploitation in the factories—is an important day for us to gather and take action to resist these attacks and defend women’s rights.
Join us in saying:
Women’s Rights Are Under Attack - What do we do? Stand up, fight back!
Stop violence against women!
Drop the charges against Marissa Alexander!
Full reproductive rights now!
Join WORD on March 8 in a city near you or call an action in your city and add it to the list!
www.DefendWomensRights.org
info@DefendWomensRights.org
Chicago: 773-828-9205 or chicago@defendwomensrights.org
Connecticut: 203-787-8232 or ct@defendwomensrights.org
Los Angeles: 323-394-3611 or la@DefendWomensRights.org
New York: 347-292-WORD (9673) or nyc@defendwomensrights.org
San Francisco: 415-375-9502 or sf@DefendWomensRights.org
www.DefendWomensRights.org
info@DefendWomensRights.org
Chicago: 773-828-9205 or chicago@defendwomensrights.org
Connecticut: 203-787-8232 or ct@defendwomensrights.org
Los Angeles: 323-394-3611 or la@DefendWomensRights.org
New York: 347-292-WORD (9673) or nyc@defendwomensrights.org
San Francisco: 415-375-9502 or sf@DefendWomensRights.org
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Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
ARTICLES IN FULL
B.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A.
ARTICLES IN FULL
(Unless
otherwise noted)
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1) Coal-Ash Dumps Threaten Community
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/22/us/ap-us-coal-ash-spill-north-carolina-.html?ref=us
WILMINGTON, N.C. — The tall stacks of a Duke Energy plant are a looming reminder of the environment dangers threatening a working class community outside of Wilmington.
Contaminated groundwater from a pair of huge Sutton Steam Electric Plant coal-ash dumps is headed toward the wells that provide drinking water for the Flemington community.
Duke says the wells are safe. But threat is so serious that the company has agreed to pay to extend pipes to connect residents to a public water system.
Sam Malpass is a longtime resident of Flemington. He says people are afraid to drink the water and the fish in nearby Sutton Lake because of coal-ash pollution.
Their concerns have been heightened in the wake of Duke's recent coal ash spill in Eden that polluted the Dan River.
WILMINGTON, N.C. — The tall stacks of a Duke Energy plant are a looming reminder of the environment dangers threatening a working class community outside of Wilmington.
Contaminated groundwater from a pair of huge Sutton Steam Electric Plant coal-ash dumps is headed toward the wells that provide drinking water for the Flemington community.
Duke says the wells are safe. But threat is so serious that the company has agreed to pay to extend pipes to connect residents to a public water system.
Sam Malpass is a longtime resident of Flemington. He says people are afraid to drink the water and the fish in nearby Sutton Lake because of coal-ash pollution.
Their concerns have been heightened in the wake of Duke's recent coal ash spill in Eden that polluted the Dan River.
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2) Plan to Limit Some Drugs in Medicare Is Criticized
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3) Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions
Three years ago, a labor leader named Marty Beil was one of the loudest opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair bill,” a proposal that brought tens of thousands of protesters out to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in frigid February weather. A gruff-voiced grizzly of a man, Mr. Beil warned that the bill was rigged with booby traps that would cripple the state’s public-sector unions.
He gets no satisfaction from being right. Since the law was passed, membership in his union, which represents state employees, has fallen 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged to $2 million from $6 million.Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power.“It’s had a devastating effect on our union,” Mr. Beil, its executive director, said of Act 10. He was sitting in his Madison office, inside the headquarters that his union, hard up for cash, may be forced to sell. The building is underused anyway, as staff reductions have left many offices empty.
Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. But the Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Mr. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.
Many labor leaders and union members are still fuming about the law. It bars public-sector unions from bargaining over pensions, health coverage, safety, hours, sick leave or vacations. All they can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.
“I speak to union officials in other states, and I tell them, ‘Don’t be misled,’ ” Mr. Beil said. “We thought this could never happen here. But it did. You have to stay vigilant.”
Mr. Walker, who is widely viewed as a Republican presidential contender in 2016, has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers, while Ohio curbed collective bargaining for all state employees — though that law was repealed in a 2011 referendum. Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions by banning any requirements that workers pay union dues or fees. (A state judge’s decision that declared the Indiana law unconstitutional is being appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.)
Mr. Walker’s tough stance toward public-employee unions has steeled governors and mayors grappling with large unfunded pension obligations. And his criticisms of pensions have been reinforced by the turmoil in Detroit, where the often-generous and sometimes scandal-ridden pension system played a substantial role in the city’s bankruptcy.
“You’re seeing more politicians willing to stand up to public-sector unions,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “Fairly or unfairly, public-sector unions are increasingly being seen as part of the problem.”
Mr. Walker survived a hard-fought recall vote two years ago. Now, as he heads into a re-election campaign, he faces the renewed opposition of labor — not to mention the embarrassing release of thousands of emails showing that his aides did political work on government time during his first race for governor, when he was the Milwaukee County executive. But he points proudly to the effects of Act 10. He says the law has given government officials far greater freedom to make budgetary decisions, allowing the state and its 72 counties and more than 440 school districts to save $2 billion. Beyond that, he says, the law has enabled school districts to fire ineffective teachers, hire more qualified ones and adopt pay-for-performance policies.
“The reforms have done exceptionally well in terms of the financial benefits they provided,” Mr. Walker said in an interview. “Many people don’t fully realize that the lasting reform of Act 10 is it helps communities balance their budget.”
Many Wisconsin officials are grateful for the flexibility and authority the law gives them, while public-sector workers say it has reduced their living standards and sapped morale. But government officials and government employees have no dispute on this point: It has fundamentally changed the dynamic between them.
New Flexibility, Bad Morale
There are 414,600 public-sector employees in Wisconsin, and it’s safe to say that few would call Mr. Walker their favorite person. The governor recalls a visit to one elementary school where a teacher asked, “Why do you hate teachers so much?”
He said his response was: “I’m not attacking teachers. The ones who make you feel under attack are your union. It’s in their best interest to get people pumped up.”
Three years ago, a labor leader named Marty Beil was one of the loudest opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair bill,” a proposal that brought tens of thousands of protesters out to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in frigid February weather. A gruff-voiced grizzly of a man, Mr. Beil warned that the bill was rigged with booby traps that would cripple the state’s public-sector unions.
He gets no satisfaction from being right. Since the law was passed, membership in his union, which represents state employees, has fallen 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged to $2 million from $6 million.Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power.“It’s had a devastating effect on our union,” Mr. Beil, its executive director, said of Act 10. He was sitting in his Madison office, inside the headquarters that his union, hard up for cash, may be forced to sell. The building is underused anyway, as staff reductions have left many offices empty.
Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. But the Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Mr. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.
Many labor leaders and union members are still fuming about the law. It bars public-sector unions from bargaining over pensions, health coverage, safety, hours, sick leave or vacations. All they can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.
“I speak to union officials in other states, and I tell them, ‘Don’t be misled,’ ” Mr. Beil said. “We thought this could never happen here. But it did. You have to stay vigilant.”
Mr. Walker, who is widely viewed as a Republican presidential contender in 2016, has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers, while Ohio curbed collective bargaining for all state employees — though that law was repealed in a 2011 referendum. Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions by banning any requirements that workers pay union dues or fees. (A state judge’s decision that declared the Indiana law unconstitutional is being appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.)
Mr. Walker’s tough stance toward public-employee unions has steeled governors and mayors grappling with large unfunded pension obligations. And his criticisms of pensions have been reinforced by the turmoil in Detroit, where the often-generous and sometimes scandal-ridden pension system played a substantial role in the city’s bankruptcy.
“You’re seeing more politicians willing to stand up to public-sector unions,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “Fairly or unfairly, public-sector unions are increasingly being seen as part of the problem.”
Mr. Walker survived a hard-fought recall vote two years ago. Now, as he heads into a re-election campaign, he faces the renewed opposition of labor — not to mention the embarrassing release of thousands of emails showing that his aides did political work on government time during his first race for governor, when he was the Milwaukee County executive. But he points proudly to the effects of Act 10. He says the law has given government officials far greater freedom to make budgetary decisions, allowing the state and its 72 counties and more than 440 school districts to save $2 billion. Beyond that, he says, the law has enabled school districts to fire ineffective teachers, hire more qualified ones and adopt pay-for-performance policies.
“The reforms have done exceptionally well in terms of the financial benefits they provided,” Mr. Walker said in an interview. “Many people don’t fully realize that the lasting reform of Act 10 is it helps communities balance their budget.”
Many Wisconsin officials are grateful for the flexibility and authority the law gives them, while public-sector workers say it has reduced their living standards and sapped morale. But government officials and government employees have no dispute on this point: It has fundamentally changed the dynamic between them.
New Flexibility, Bad Morale
There are 414,600 public-sector employees in Wisconsin, and it’s safe to say that few would call Mr. Walker their favorite person. The governor recalls a visit to one elementary school where a teacher asked, “Why do you hate teachers so much?”
He said his response was: “I’m not attacking teachers. The ones who make you feel under attack are your union. It’s in their best interest to get people pumped up.”
Leah Lipska, the president of Local 1, scoffs at Mr. Walker’s famous suggestion that public employees are the “haves” in society, noting that many earn less than $35,000 a year. And the law, says Ms. Lipska, an information systems technician with the state corrections system, has made things much worse.
“My family is now on food stamps,” said Ms. Lipska, a mother of three who earns $18.62 an hour. (Her husband’s computer installation business is struggling.)
Act 10, which still faces court challenges from unions, has generally required public employees to start contributing 6 percent of their pay toward their pensions and at least 12 percent of their health plan costs. For many employees, that meant a 12 percent pay cut; on top of that, many faced a multiyear pay freeze.
The law repealed a so-called fair-share requirement that all public employees represented by a union pay union fees, and many employees are opting out. At Ms. Lipska’s local, most workers stopped paying dues and dropped their membership, she said, because the law had squeezed their take-home pay and limited how much the union could help them.
That was the case for Melissa McQuay, who earns $42,000 a year as a social worker in Polk County. She said she was so stretched from a pay freeze and her increased health and pension contributions that she has stopped paying her $36 a month in union dues.
“We live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “I have a kid in college. I’m unable to help out with union dues because there’s nothing left over.”
The law, said Lester A. Pines, a lawyer for several Wisconsin unions, is destroying unions with a thousand cuts and making it seem that it’s their fault. “The State Legislature could have easily abolished collective bargaining altogether,” he said. “Instead, it enacted a law that creates tremendous incentives for public employees to cease being union members, thereby destroying the unions.”
Even the process of collecting dues is more cumbersome because the law bars government officials from deducting union dues from paychecks. Now unions must make individual arrangements with each member to collect dues.
“There are all sorts of brier patches in the law,” Mr. Beil said.
For unions, an especially troublesome provision requires an annual “recertification” vote for every local that hopes to retain the ability to bargain collectively, albeit only over base pay. To win, a union needs not just a majority of those who vote, but a majority of all eligible to vote — a far steeper hurdle.
“The unions are fighting for their lives,” said Charles E. Carlson, a consultant to Wisconsin’s public employers for 40 years.
In December, about 400 school district unions — most of them teacher unions, but some representing janitors — sought recertification. Around 80 of them failed to get the needed majority and were decertified. Teacher unions have generally been more successful than others in winning recertification because teachers, more than, say, prison guards or computer programmers, have developed a pro-union esprit de corps within their schools.
Mr. Beil’s union and its locals have decided against participating in the recertification votes. He said the rules were stacked against them, adding that if his union participated, all his staff would do year-round is to campaign for recertification.
Not that they can do much else. Without the ability to bargain, his union mostly represents members on grievances and engages in collective action, like targeted — and often futile — protests. “Now 99 percent of what the staff does is organize,” he said.
Mr. Beil said the state awarded most employees a 1 percent raise in 2013, following a two-year pay freeze. But while nonunion state employees received that 1 percent raise in July, unionized employees have not yet received it — they will finally get it at the end of this month — because the Republican-dominated Legislature needs to approve raises for union members, and it has been in no rush. “The state has all the ability to be arbitrary even if you play by the rules,” Mr. Beil said. “All this makes it difficult to show value to the members.”
Some unions have improvised in response to the law, to make sure that their concerns are heard, if not always heeded. The teachers’ union in Racine feared that the school district would scrap parts of the old contract that limited class sizes and prohibited terminations except for “just cause.” The union held nearly 30 meetings — technically not bargaining sessions — with district officials, who ultimately agreed to put class-size limits and “just cause” protections into their annual handbook on school policies.
The union considered that a victory. “This collaboration helps the district by creating job stability and attracting teachers,” said Jack Bernfeld, executive director of Racine’s teachers’ union.
A handbook, however, does not have the legal weight of a contract.
Stoking the Political Fires
Mr. Beil, who quickly grows heated when discussing Act 10, is convinced that there was an insidious intent in the law, beyond budget-cutting and government flexibility. “The reason for the law,” he said, “is how are we going to emasculate the unions in Wisconsin so they are no longer politically influential in state elections.”
Mr. Walker has often heard this accusation. “If it’s a political decision, it’s a very odd one,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would say, ‘Let’s do something that will generate 100,000 people coming out to protest in the capital, and go through all the grief and attacks and death threats.’ ”
Nonetheless, he knows he has made himself a big, fat political target in the campaign for governor this year. “For not just Wisconsin unions, but national unions, I’m at the top of the list of people they’d have on a platter,” he said. “Not just for retribution, but they understand that if they could take me out, it would send a very powerful message to other governors and other mayors. But if we’re able to win again in a tough, evenly divided battleground state, that would send another message — that you can take on some of these issues and still survive.”
The unions — and the Democrats — are already using Mr. Walker’s own words about the law against him. Three years ago, Mr. Walker argued that Act 10 would do more than help governments balance budgets. He predicted that it would improve Wisconsin’s business climate and advance his pledge to create 250,000 jobs in his four-year term. But according to federal statistics, Wisconsin has added a net total of 53,809 since he took office. Mary Burke, the likely Democratic nominee, has already made the question, “Where are the 250,000 jobs that this governor promised?” — a campaign theme.
Rick Badger, executive director of a union representing city and county employees throughout Wisconsin, foresees a big anti-Walker effort this November, bolstered by money coming into Wisconsin from parent unions. “We have less financial resources — that’s a given,” Mr. Badger said. “But the activists who were strongly engaged three years ago are still there. People are still angry.”
Lee Saunders, national president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, vowed to bring outside help and lots of money to unseat Mr. Walker. “We’re going to support the workers and our allies who stood up against Scott Walker,” said Mr. Saunders, who also serves as chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee. “We’ll be moving into the state to try to defeat him.”
Ms. Lipska, however, just can’t fathom that there will be much union political activism in November. Workers are worn down, she said, having lost the legislative battle in 2011 and then the attempt to oust Mr. Walker in the 2012 recall vote. Not only that, many government workers have been forced to take second jobs, said Ms. Lipska, who moonlighted for several months as a $9.50-an-hour shift manager at Rocky Rococo, an Italian restaurant.
“A lot of people are tired,” she said. “They’re tired of politics.”
3) Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions
Three years ago, a labor leader named Marty Beil was one of the loudest opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair bill,” a proposal that brought tens of thousands of protesters out to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in frigid February weather. A gruff-voiced grizzly of a man, Mr. Beil warned that the bill was rigged with booby traps that would cripple the state’s public-sector unions.
He gets no satisfaction from being right. Since the law was passed, membership in his union, which represents state employees, has fallen 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged to $2 million from $6 million.Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power.“It’s had a devastating effect on our union,” Mr. Beil, its executive director, said of Act 10. He was sitting in his Madison office, inside the headquarters that his union, hard up for cash, may be forced to sell. The building is underused anyway, as staff reductions have left many offices empty.
Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. But the Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Mr. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.
Many labor leaders and union members are still fuming about the law. It bars public-sector unions from bargaining over pensions, health coverage, safety, hours, sick leave or vacations. All they can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.
“I speak to union officials in other states, and I tell them, ‘Don’t be misled,’ ” Mr. Beil said. “We thought this could never happen here. But it did. You have to stay vigilant.”
Mr. Walker, who is widely viewed as a Republican presidential contender in 2016, has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers, while Ohio curbed collective bargaining for all state employees — though that law was repealed in a 2011 referendum. Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions by banning any requirements that workers pay union dues or fees. (A state judge’s decision that declared the Indiana law unconstitutional is being appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.)
Mr. Walker’s tough stance toward public-employee unions has steeled governors and mayors grappling with large unfunded pension obligations. And his criticisms of pensions have been reinforced by the turmoil in Detroit, where the often-generous and sometimes scandal-ridden pension system played a substantial role in the city’s bankruptcy.
“You’re seeing more politicians willing to stand up to public-sector unions,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “Fairly or unfairly, public-sector unions are increasingly being seen as part of the problem.”
Mr. Walker survived a hard-fought recall vote two years ago. Now, as he heads into a re-election campaign, he faces the renewed opposition of labor — not to mention the embarrassing release of thousands of emails showing that his aides did political work on government time during his first race for governor, when he was the Milwaukee County executive. But he points proudly to the effects of Act 10. He says the law has given government officials far greater freedom to make budgetary decisions, allowing the state and its 72 counties and more than 440 school districts to save $2 billion. Beyond that, he says, the law has enabled school districts to fire ineffective teachers, hire more qualified ones and adopt pay-for-performance policies.
“The reforms have done exceptionally well in terms of the financial benefits they provided,” Mr. Walker said in an interview. “Many people don’t fully realize that the lasting reform of Act 10 is it helps communities balance their budget.”
Many Wisconsin officials are grateful for the flexibility and authority the law gives them, while public-sector workers say it has reduced their living standards and sapped morale. But government officials and government employees have no dispute on this point: It has fundamentally changed the dynamic between them.
New Flexibility, Bad Morale
There are 414,600 public-sector employees in Wisconsin, and it’s safe to say that few would call Mr. Walker their favorite person. The governor recalls a visit to one elementary school where a teacher asked, “Why do you hate teachers so much?”
He said his response was: “I’m not attacking teachers. The ones who make you feel under attack are your union. It’s in their best interest to get people pumped up.”
Three years ago, a labor leader named Marty Beil was one of the loudest opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair bill,” a proposal that brought tens of thousands of protesters out to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in frigid February weather. A gruff-voiced grizzly of a man, Mr. Beil warned that the bill was rigged with booby traps that would cripple the state’s public-sector unions.
He gets no satisfaction from being right. Since the law was passed, membership in his union, which represents state employees, has fallen 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged to $2 million from $6 million.Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power.“It’s had a devastating effect on our union,” Mr. Beil, its executive director, said of Act 10. He was sitting in his Madison office, inside the headquarters that his union, hard up for cash, may be forced to sell. The building is underused anyway, as staff reductions have left many offices empty.
Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. But the Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Mr. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.
Many labor leaders and union members are still fuming about the law. It bars public-sector unions from bargaining over pensions, health coverage, safety, hours, sick leave or vacations. All they can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.
“I speak to union officials in other states, and I tell them, ‘Don’t be misled,’ ” Mr. Beil said. “We thought this could never happen here. But it did. You have to stay vigilant.”
Mr. Walker, who is widely viewed as a Republican presidential contender in 2016, has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers, while Ohio curbed collective bargaining for all state employees — though that law was repealed in a 2011 referendum. Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions by banning any requirements that workers pay union dues or fees. (A state judge’s decision that declared the Indiana law unconstitutional is being appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.)
Mr. Walker’s tough stance toward public-employee unions has steeled governors and mayors grappling with large unfunded pension obligations. And his criticisms of pensions have been reinforced by the turmoil in Detroit, where the often-generous and sometimes scandal-ridden pension system played a substantial role in the city’s bankruptcy.
“You’re seeing more politicians willing to stand up to public-sector unions,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “Fairly or unfairly, public-sector unions are increasingly being seen as part of the problem.”
Mr. Walker survived a hard-fought recall vote two years ago. Now, as he heads into a re-election campaign, he faces the renewed opposition of labor — not to mention the embarrassing release of thousands of emails showing that his aides did political work on government time during his first race for governor, when he was the Milwaukee County executive. But he points proudly to the effects of Act 10. He says the law has given government officials far greater freedom to make budgetary decisions, allowing the state and its 72 counties and more than 440 school districts to save $2 billion. Beyond that, he says, the law has enabled school districts to fire ineffective teachers, hire more qualified ones and adopt pay-for-performance policies.
“The reforms have done exceptionally well in terms of the financial benefits they provided,” Mr. Walker said in an interview. “Many people don’t fully realize that the lasting reform of Act 10 is it helps communities balance their budget.”
Many Wisconsin officials are grateful for the flexibility and authority the law gives them, while public-sector workers say it has reduced their living standards and sapped morale. But government officials and government employees have no dispute on this point: It has fundamentally changed the dynamic between them.
New Flexibility, Bad Morale
There are 414,600 public-sector employees in Wisconsin, and it’s safe to say that few would call Mr. Walker their favorite person. The governor recalls a visit to one elementary school where a teacher asked, “Why do you hate teachers so much?”
He said his response was: “I’m not attacking teachers. The ones who make you feel under attack are your union. It’s in their best interest to get people pumped up.”
Leah Lipska, the president of Local 1, scoffs at Mr. Walker’s famous suggestion that public employees are the “haves” in society, noting that many earn less than $35,000 a year. And the law, says Ms. Lipska, an information systems technician with the state corrections system, has made things much worse.
“My family is now on food stamps,” said Ms. Lipska, a mother of three who earns $18.62 an hour. (Her husband’s computer installation business is struggling.)
Act 10, which still faces court challenges from unions, has generally required public employees to start contributing 6 percent of their pay toward their pensions and at least 12 percent of their health plan costs. For many employees, that meant a 12 percent pay cut; on top of that, many faced a multiyear pay freeze.
The law repealed a so-called fair-share requirement that all public employees represented by a union pay union fees, and many employees are opting out. At Ms. Lipska’s local, most workers stopped paying dues and dropped their membership, she said, because the law had squeezed their take-home pay and limited how much the union could help them.
That was the case for Melissa McQuay, who earns $42,000 a year as a social worker in Polk County. She said she was so stretched from a pay freeze and her increased health and pension contributions that she has stopped paying her $36 a month in union dues.
“We live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “I have a kid in college. I’m unable to help out with union dues because there’s nothing left over.”
The law, said Lester A. Pines, a lawyer for several Wisconsin unions, is destroying unions with a thousand cuts and making it seem that it’s their fault. “The State Legislature could have easily abolished collective bargaining altogether,” he said. “Instead, it enacted a law that creates tremendous incentives for public employees to cease being union members, thereby destroying the unions.”
Even the process of collecting dues is more cumbersome because the law bars government officials from deducting union dues from paychecks. Now unions must make individual arrangements with each member to collect dues.
“There are all sorts of brier patches in the law,” Mr. Beil said.
For unions, an especially troublesome provision requires an annual “recertification” vote for every local that hopes to retain the ability to bargain collectively, albeit only over base pay. To win, a union needs not just a majority of those who vote, but a majority of all eligible to vote — a far steeper hurdle.
“The unions are fighting for their lives,” said Charles E. Carlson, a consultant to Wisconsin’s public employers for 40 years.
In December, about 400 school district unions — most of them teacher unions, but some representing janitors — sought recertification. Around 80 of them failed to get the needed majority and were decertified. Teacher unions have generally been more successful than others in winning recertification because teachers, more than, say, prison guards or computer programmers, have developed a pro-union esprit de corps within their schools.
Mr. Beil’s union and its locals have decided against participating in the recertification votes. He said the rules were stacked against them, adding that if his union participated, all his staff would do year-round is to campaign for recertification.
Not that they can do much else. Without the ability to bargain, his union mostly represents members on grievances and engages in collective action, like targeted — and often futile — protests. “Now 99 percent of what the staff does is organize,” he said.
Mr. Beil said the state awarded most employees a 1 percent raise in 2013, following a two-year pay freeze. But while nonunion state employees received that 1 percent raise in July, unionized employees have not yet received it — they will finally get it at the end of this month — because the Republican-dominated Legislature needs to approve raises for union members, and it has been in no rush. “The state has all the ability to be arbitrary even if you play by the rules,” Mr. Beil said. “All this makes it difficult to show value to the members.”
Some unions have improvised in response to the law, to make sure that their concerns are heard, if not always heeded. The teachers’ union in Racine feared that the school district would scrap parts of the old contract that limited class sizes and prohibited terminations except for “just cause.” The union held nearly 30 meetings — technically not bargaining sessions — with district officials, who ultimately agreed to put class-size limits and “just cause” protections into their annual handbook on school policies.
The union considered that a victory. “This collaboration helps the district by creating job stability and attracting teachers,” said Jack Bernfeld, executive director of Racine’s teachers’ union.
A handbook, however, does not have the legal weight of a contract.
Stoking the Political Fires
Mr. Beil, who quickly grows heated when discussing Act 10, is convinced that there was an insidious intent in the law, beyond budget-cutting and government flexibility. “The reason for the law,” he said, “is how are we going to emasculate the unions in Wisconsin so they are no longer politically influential in state elections.”
Mr. Walker has often heard this accusation. “If it’s a political decision, it’s a very odd one,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would say, ‘Let’s do something that will generate 100,000 people coming out to protest in the capital, and go through all the grief and attacks and death threats.’ ”
Nonetheless, he knows he has made himself a big, fat political target in the campaign for governor this year. “For not just Wisconsin unions, but national unions, I’m at the top of the list of people they’d have on a platter,” he said. “Not just for retribution, but they understand that if they could take me out, it would send a very powerful message to other governors and other mayors. But if we’re able to win again in a tough, evenly divided battleground state, that would send another message — that you can take on some of these issues and still survive.”
The unions — and the Democrats — are already using Mr. Walker’s own words about the law against him. Three years ago, Mr. Walker argued that Act 10 would do more than help governments balance budgets. He predicted that it would improve Wisconsin’s business climate and advance his pledge to create 250,000 jobs in his four-year term. But according to federal statistics, Wisconsin has added a net total of 53,809 since he took office. Mary Burke, the likely Democratic nominee, has already made the question, “Where are the 250,000 jobs that this governor promised?” — a campaign theme.
Rick Badger, executive director of a union representing city and county employees throughout Wisconsin, foresees a big anti-Walker effort this November, bolstered by money coming into Wisconsin from parent unions. “We have less financial resources — that’s a given,” Mr. Badger said. “But the activists who were strongly engaged three years ago are still there. People are still angry.”
Lee Saunders, national president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, vowed to bring outside help and lots of money to unseat Mr. Walker. “We’re going to support the workers and our allies who stood up against Scott Walker,” said Mr. Saunders, who also serves as chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee. “We’ll be moving into the state to try to defeat him.”
Ms. Lipska, however, just can’t fathom that there will be much union political activism in November. Workers are worn down, she said, having lost the legislative battle in 2011 and then the attempt to oust Mr. Walker in the 2012 recall vote. Not only that, many government workers have been forced to take second jobs, said Ms. Lipska, who moonlighted for several months as a $9.50-an-hour shift manager at Rocky Rococo, an Italian restaurant.
“A lot of people are tired,” she said. “They’re tired of politics.”
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4) Exonerated. Now What?
It had been a while since Jeffrey Deskovic hosted one of his weekday evening singalongs, so last month he made a few calls and brought some friends together at the Karaoke Cave, a noisy little bar on East 13th Street in Manhattan. At 6 p.m. the place was filled with young professionals sipping beers and shouting into microphones in an undemanding, if embarrassing, environment. But to Mr. Deskovic and the men who joined him, standing up in public and singing cheesy pop songs was more than an innocent release.
“Things like this are different for us — they’re almost therapeutic,” one of the men, William Lopez, said, when he and Mr. Deskovic finished their dissonant duet of an old Beastie Boys hit. “We’re not exactly family, but we relate to one another. It’s kind of like we get together for treatment or something, like we have the same disease.”That disease was not a physical illness, but an emotional disorder of a sort, a lingering condition of dark disbelief arising from the fact that each of the four “singing it out,” in Mr. Deskovic’s phrase, had done a stint in prison for a crime he did not commit. In all, they had spent 63 years behind bars until, through their own perseverance and the efforts of their lawyers and their families, they were exonerated and freed.
4) Exonerated. Now What?
It had been a while since Jeffrey Deskovic hosted one of his weekday evening singalongs, so last month he made a few calls and brought some friends together at the Karaoke Cave, a noisy little bar on East 13th Street in Manhattan. At 6 p.m. the place was filled with young professionals sipping beers and shouting into microphones in an undemanding, if embarrassing, environment. But to Mr. Deskovic and the men who joined him, standing up in public and singing cheesy pop songs was more than an innocent release.
“Things like this are different for us — they’re almost therapeutic,” one of the men, William Lopez, said, when he and Mr. Deskovic finished their dissonant duet of an old Beastie Boys hit. “We’re not exactly family, but we relate to one another. It’s kind of like we get together for treatment or something, like we have the same disease.”That disease was not a physical illness, but an emotional disorder of a sort, a lingering condition of dark disbelief arising from the fact that each of the four “singing it out,” in Mr. Deskovic’s phrase, had done a stint in prison for a crime he did not commit. In all, they had spent 63 years behind bars until, through their own perseverance and the efforts of their lawyers and their families, they were exonerated and freed.
A
sprawling literature exists describing the challenges of re-entering
society after serving time in prison, an experience that is marked by
depression and disorientation, and is hard enough for those who have
been rightfully punished for their crimes. But what about those who are
wrongly sent away as the victims of mistaken identity or prosecutorial
error? The justly incarcerated are likely to have access to a battery of
post-release services like health care, housing aid and social-work
assistance, but those who should not have been locked up in the first
place are rarely given treatment to address their special needs, and are
often left to fend for themselves, finding the cure for their “disease”
in one another’s company.
“There was a gap for men like us and I wanted to fill it,” said Mr. Deskovic, who spent 16 years in prison for a rape and a murder he did not commit. After his release in 2006, he filled that gap with the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, a product of a settlement with his jailers that is focused on helping the innocent who found themselves imprisoned to manage the financial and emotional results of their own release.
A combination of advocacy organization and support group, the Deskovic Foundation, since its creation in 2012, has collected a small, tightknit brotherhood of exonerated inmates, a society of the wronged whose members have been forced to come together and assist one another in the absence of assistance from anyone else.
When Eric Glisson, improperly imprisoned on a murder charge for 17 years, was recently planning at age 40 to open Fresh Take, his juice bar in the Bronx, Mr. Deskovic offered him marketing advice and bolstered his credit by co-signing the lease. When Mr. Lopez, convicted of a killing he did not commit, was freed from prison last winter after serving more than 23 years, Mr. Deskovic replaced the clothes he was arrested in with an outfit from Macy’s and put him up for six months — rent free — in the foundation’s apartment in Washington Heights.
And there was Kian Khatibi, who was released in 2008 after serving nine years for a stabbing he eventually discovered that his brother had committed. Beyond the travail of coping with this filial betrayal, he was freed from prison with only the pocket cash he had when arrested and without identification, which left him initially unable to apply for a credit card, a bank account or assistance from the welfare office.
Within weeks of getting out, Mr. Khatibi, still in shock, came across a newspaper article about Mr. Deskovic and got in touch. They had lunch and talked about the ordeal of being innocent but imprisoned — an experience akin to an alien abduction.
“I only wanted one thing from Jeff when we met up,” Mr. Khatibi, 38, said. “I wanted to know, from someone who had been through it, what had just happened to me. I wanted to know if it was real.”
In the last quarter-century, 1,314 wrongfully incarcerated Americans have been freed, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project run by the University of Michigan Law School and the Northwestern University School of Law. In 2013 alone, 87 inmates were released after serving time improperly.
Jeffrey Deskovic is one of those men. In 1989 the body of Angela Correa, one of Mr. Deskovic’s classmates at Peekskill High School in Westchester County, was discovered lying naked in some woods outside town. Ms. Correa, a sophomore, had been raped and murdered. Mr. Deskovic, who was 16 at the time, fit the description of the killer stitched together by a criminal-profile expert employed by the police.
Although hair and semen samples taken from the scene did not match Mr. Deskovic’s DNA, he aroused the suspicion of detectives by weeping openly at Ms. Correa’s funeral. After two months of intense interrogation, Mr. Deskovic confessed to the crime, though he later contended in a lawsuit that police investigators had fed him the details of the killing and promised him that if he admitted guilt, he would not go to prison but would instead get psychiatric treatment.
But Mr. Deskovic did end up in prison — for 16 years. And when he finally got out in 2006, with the help of the Innocence Project, a legal clinic that specializes in exoneration cases, he was 33 years old and unprepared for ordinary life, as The New York Times reported in an extensive article in 2007. He had never owned a car, had never tied a necktie, had never balanced a checkbook. He had never voted for a president, had never made love.
It was only in 2011, when the lawsuit he had filed led to a $6.5 million settlement with Westchester County, that Mr. Deskovic understood how to heal his psychic wounds and effect his escape from what he called his time capsule. With a portion of his settlement, he established his foundation the next year in an office on West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side. He hired a staff of four and began to seek out his fellow exonerees, as they are sometimes called. He helped them adjust to the unfamiliar world outside prison by offering them money and by making simple gestures like inviting them to his home on Sunday afternoons to watch football games.
“It was how I made sense of what had happened to me,” he said. “I always wished that I had had a Jeff Deskovic when I was on the inside.”
Mr. Deskovic’s foundation is one of only a few organizations in the country that devote themselves to exonerated inmates. The Innocence Project, for one, has two social workers on staff at its office in New York who disburse $10,000 grants to those who have been wrongfully imprisoned and help them find apartments and health care on release. But this assistance is made available only to clients of the project, which restricts its legal work to cases based on DNA evidence. Many exonerations, if not most, result from other causes, like newly discovered evidence or witness recantations.
The Innocence Project tried several years ago to create a broader program to assist exonerees called Life After Exoneration. But Barry Scheck, a founder of the group, said he could not get money for the program because the cohort it was meant to serve was relatively small. Yet if the number of exonerees in need of aid is comparatively limited, the support that they require is often more acute than what is typically available to other former inmates.
“People who have been wrongly convicted don’t have any reason to trust authority,” said Karen Wolff, a social worker with the Innocence Project. “The irony is it impacts their ability to deal with the people there to help them — with their lawyers, the social-service agencies they go to, even with potential bosses down the line.”
Then, of course, there are “bitterness issues,” Ms. Wolff said.
“The first year out is critical in their ability to transition back to life,” she added, “and there is no central place, no single institution that can tell them, ‘O.K., this is what we took from you, now here’s what we’re going to give you back.’ ”
It is widely assumed that exonerated inmates can simply make a claim against their jailers and walk away, like Mr. Deskovic, financially set for life. But only 29 states have laws that permit the wrongfully imprisoned to sue for compensation, and even in those states, the cases often languish in court for years.
In New York, for example, only prisoners who contested the charges against them can sue for damages, although the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, recently proposed allowing people who had confessed or pleaded guilty to sue.
That means that men like Mr. Khatibi, Mr. Glisson and Mr. Lopez, who all have litigation pending, have no choice in the meantime but to rely upon themselves — and one another — to get back on their feet. Each of them is doing reasonably well despite his situation. Mr. Khatibi is scheduled to graduate from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in May and plans to do part-time pro bono work with the Deskovic Foundation on exoneration cases. Mr. Glisson recently struck a deal with a bottling company to distribute his juices to a couple of local stores. Mr. Lopez is trying get his engineering license, which he lost when he was imprisoned, reinstated by Local 94 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
“Jeff’s been helping out,” Mr. Lopez said. “He calls me up. He asks me how I’m doing. He makes me set my plans and get myself together.” For the first time, Mr. Lopez has an email address. Mr. Deskovic helped him pick out his handle: FreeWillyLopez.
Late last month, on a snowy weekday evening, Mr. Lopez celebrated the first anniversary of his release from prison. Mr. Deskovic gave a party in honor of the occasion at his roomy house in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx.
There were chips and guacamole, and appetizer plates of Swiss cheese and charcuterie. As a magnum of red wine quickly disappeared, Mr. Deskovic played the role of host, urging everyone to please eat more and showing off his new Venetian blinds, which worked by remote control.
Then it was time for dinner — salad and lasagna — and Mr. Lopez sat down at a table set for seven across from Mr. Glisson and next to Mr. Deskovic. Mr. Khatibi was unable to attend, but Mr. Lopez’s wife, Alice Lopez, and his brother, Eugene, were there.
“These guys give him a ton of reinforcement,” Eugene Lopez said, as the food was passed around. “It isn’t easy getting out of prison and back into society. You need your family, but family can only do so much. You also need people who’ve been through what you’ve been through for support.”
Toward the end of the meal, Mr. Deskovic tapped a fork against his glass and proposed a toast to Mr. Lopez. He remembered the first thing that the guest of honor ate after his release: shrimp cocktail and a heaping plate of chicken Parmesan. He remembered what Mr. Lopez looked like on that day a year ago: his “pale face” and his “big lost eyes.”
“I’m just happy to be a part of where you ended up,” Mr. Deskovic went on, looking at his friend. “The three of us” — he turned to look at Mr. Glisson — “we speak the same language.”
Mr. Glisson raised his glass and said, “Here’s to being the victor, not the victim.”
Part of being the victor, it appeared, meant finally speaking openly about the experience of being an innocent man in prison. Mr. Lopez and Mr. Glisson, who initially met in Sing Sing, both said that it was a breach of prison culture for falsely jailed inmates to say they weren’t guilty.
“Everyone claims that they’re not guilty,” Mr. Lopez said, “so no one wants to hear it — even if it’s true.” Besides, he added, claiming that you’re innocent makes you appear weak and vulnerable. “It’s crazy,” he went on, “but you almost have to pretend to be what you know you’re not in order to survive.”
The red wine was followed by Champagne, and Mr. Deskovic picked up his cellphone and called Jabbar Collins, another exonerated inmate who occasionally hangs out with the group. “Hey, J,” he exclaimed when Mr. Collins answered, “it’s Bill’s one-year anniversary.”
Putting the phone on speaker, Mr. Deskovic held it up to Mr. Lopez. Mr. Collins wished him a happy anniversary.
“Thanks, man,” Mr. Lopez said. “It means a lot to hear that. You know how it is, Jabbar. We all come from the trenches, like I call them. From the trenches, bro, the deep trenches.”
“There was a gap for men like us and I wanted to fill it,” said Mr. Deskovic, who spent 16 years in prison for a rape and a murder he did not commit. After his release in 2006, he filled that gap with the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, a product of a settlement with his jailers that is focused on helping the innocent who found themselves imprisoned to manage the financial and emotional results of their own release.
A combination of advocacy organization and support group, the Deskovic Foundation, since its creation in 2012, has collected a small, tightknit brotherhood of exonerated inmates, a society of the wronged whose members have been forced to come together and assist one another in the absence of assistance from anyone else.
When Eric Glisson, improperly imprisoned on a murder charge for 17 years, was recently planning at age 40 to open Fresh Take, his juice bar in the Bronx, Mr. Deskovic offered him marketing advice and bolstered his credit by co-signing the lease. When Mr. Lopez, convicted of a killing he did not commit, was freed from prison last winter after serving more than 23 years, Mr. Deskovic replaced the clothes he was arrested in with an outfit from Macy’s and put him up for six months — rent free — in the foundation’s apartment in Washington Heights.
And there was Kian Khatibi, who was released in 2008 after serving nine years for a stabbing he eventually discovered that his brother had committed. Beyond the travail of coping with this filial betrayal, he was freed from prison with only the pocket cash he had when arrested and without identification, which left him initially unable to apply for a credit card, a bank account or assistance from the welfare office.
Within weeks of getting out, Mr. Khatibi, still in shock, came across a newspaper article about Mr. Deskovic and got in touch. They had lunch and talked about the ordeal of being innocent but imprisoned — an experience akin to an alien abduction.
“I only wanted one thing from Jeff when we met up,” Mr. Khatibi, 38, said. “I wanted to know, from someone who had been through it, what had just happened to me. I wanted to know if it was real.”
In the last quarter-century, 1,314 wrongfully incarcerated Americans have been freed, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project run by the University of Michigan Law School and the Northwestern University School of Law. In 2013 alone, 87 inmates were released after serving time improperly.
Jeffrey Deskovic is one of those men. In 1989 the body of Angela Correa, one of Mr. Deskovic’s classmates at Peekskill High School in Westchester County, was discovered lying naked in some woods outside town. Ms. Correa, a sophomore, had been raped and murdered. Mr. Deskovic, who was 16 at the time, fit the description of the killer stitched together by a criminal-profile expert employed by the police.
Although hair and semen samples taken from the scene did not match Mr. Deskovic’s DNA, he aroused the suspicion of detectives by weeping openly at Ms. Correa’s funeral. After two months of intense interrogation, Mr. Deskovic confessed to the crime, though he later contended in a lawsuit that police investigators had fed him the details of the killing and promised him that if he admitted guilt, he would not go to prison but would instead get psychiatric treatment.
But Mr. Deskovic did end up in prison — for 16 years. And when he finally got out in 2006, with the help of the Innocence Project, a legal clinic that specializes in exoneration cases, he was 33 years old and unprepared for ordinary life, as The New York Times reported in an extensive article in 2007. He had never owned a car, had never tied a necktie, had never balanced a checkbook. He had never voted for a president, had never made love.
It was only in 2011, when the lawsuit he had filed led to a $6.5 million settlement with Westchester County, that Mr. Deskovic understood how to heal his psychic wounds and effect his escape from what he called his time capsule. With a portion of his settlement, he established his foundation the next year in an office on West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side. He hired a staff of four and began to seek out his fellow exonerees, as they are sometimes called. He helped them adjust to the unfamiliar world outside prison by offering them money and by making simple gestures like inviting them to his home on Sunday afternoons to watch football games.
“It was how I made sense of what had happened to me,” he said. “I always wished that I had had a Jeff Deskovic when I was on the inside.”
Mr. Deskovic’s foundation is one of only a few organizations in the country that devote themselves to exonerated inmates. The Innocence Project, for one, has two social workers on staff at its office in New York who disburse $10,000 grants to those who have been wrongfully imprisoned and help them find apartments and health care on release. But this assistance is made available only to clients of the project, which restricts its legal work to cases based on DNA evidence. Many exonerations, if not most, result from other causes, like newly discovered evidence or witness recantations.
The Innocence Project tried several years ago to create a broader program to assist exonerees called Life After Exoneration. But Barry Scheck, a founder of the group, said he could not get money for the program because the cohort it was meant to serve was relatively small. Yet if the number of exonerees in need of aid is comparatively limited, the support that they require is often more acute than what is typically available to other former inmates.
“People who have been wrongly convicted don’t have any reason to trust authority,” said Karen Wolff, a social worker with the Innocence Project. “The irony is it impacts their ability to deal with the people there to help them — with their lawyers, the social-service agencies they go to, even with potential bosses down the line.”
Then, of course, there are “bitterness issues,” Ms. Wolff said.
“The first year out is critical in their ability to transition back to life,” she added, “and there is no central place, no single institution that can tell them, ‘O.K., this is what we took from you, now here’s what we’re going to give you back.’ ”
It is widely assumed that exonerated inmates can simply make a claim against their jailers and walk away, like Mr. Deskovic, financially set for life. But only 29 states have laws that permit the wrongfully imprisoned to sue for compensation, and even in those states, the cases often languish in court for years.
In New York, for example, only prisoners who contested the charges against them can sue for damages, although the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, recently proposed allowing people who had confessed or pleaded guilty to sue.
That means that men like Mr. Khatibi, Mr. Glisson and Mr. Lopez, who all have litigation pending, have no choice in the meantime but to rely upon themselves — and one another — to get back on their feet. Each of them is doing reasonably well despite his situation. Mr. Khatibi is scheduled to graduate from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in May and plans to do part-time pro bono work with the Deskovic Foundation on exoneration cases. Mr. Glisson recently struck a deal with a bottling company to distribute his juices to a couple of local stores. Mr. Lopez is trying get his engineering license, which he lost when he was imprisoned, reinstated by Local 94 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
“Jeff’s been helping out,” Mr. Lopez said. “He calls me up. He asks me how I’m doing. He makes me set my plans and get myself together.” For the first time, Mr. Lopez has an email address. Mr. Deskovic helped him pick out his handle: FreeWillyLopez.
Late last month, on a snowy weekday evening, Mr. Lopez celebrated the first anniversary of his release from prison. Mr. Deskovic gave a party in honor of the occasion at his roomy house in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx.
There were chips and guacamole, and appetizer plates of Swiss cheese and charcuterie. As a magnum of red wine quickly disappeared, Mr. Deskovic played the role of host, urging everyone to please eat more and showing off his new Venetian blinds, which worked by remote control.
Then it was time for dinner — salad and lasagna — and Mr. Lopez sat down at a table set for seven across from Mr. Glisson and next to Mr. Deskovic. Mr. Khatibi was unable to attend, but Mr. Lopez’s wife, Alice Lopez, and his brother, Eugene, were there.
“These guys give him a ton of reinforcement,” Eugene Lopez said, as the food was passed around. “It isn’t easy getting out of prison and back into society. You need your family, but family can only do so much. You also need people who’ve been through what you’ve been through for support.”
Toward the end of the meal, Mr. Deskovic tapped a fork against his glass and proposed a toast to Mr. Lopez. He remembered the first thing that the guest of honor ate after his release: shrimp cocktail and a heaping plate of chicken Parmesan. He remembered what Mr. Lopez looked like on that day a year ago: his “pale face” and his “big lost eyes.”
“I’m just happy to be a part of where you ended up,” Mr. Deskovic went on, looking at his friend. “The three of us” — he turned to look at Mr. Glisson — “we speak the same language.”
Mr. Glisson raised his glass and said, “Here’s to being the victor, not the victim.”
Part of being the victor, it appeared, meant finally speaking openly about the experience of being an innocent man in prison. Mr. Lopez and Mr. Glisson, who initially met in Sing Sing, both said that it was a breach of prison culture for falsely jailed inmates to say they weren’t guilty.
“Everyone claims that they’re not guilty,” Mr. Lopez said, “so no one wants to hear it — even if it’s true.” Besides, he added, claiming that you’re innocent makes you appear weak and vulnerable. “It’s crazy,” he went on, “but you almost have to pretend to be what you know you’re not in order to survive.”
The red wine was followed by Champagne, and Mr. Deskovic picked up his cellphone and called Jabbar Collins, another exonerated inmate who occasionally hangs out with the group. “Hey, J,” he exclaimed when Mr. Collins answered, “it’s Bill’s one-year anniversary.”
Putting the phone on speaker, Mr. Deskovic held it up to Mr. Lopez. Mr. Collins wished him a happy anniversary.
“Thanks, man,” Mr. Lopez said. “It means a lot to hear that. You know how it is, Jabbar. We all come from the trenches, like I call them. From the trenches, bro, the deep trenches.”
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5) Expand Pre-K, Not A.D.H.D.
5) Expand Pre-K, Not A.D.H.D.
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6) Locke and Load: The Fatal Error of the ‘Stand Your Ground’ Philosophy
By FIRMIN DEBRABANDER
I.
The anger and protest first sparked by the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, was stoked again last week with the verdict in the trial of Michael Dunn.
In 2012, Dunn opened fire into a car full of black teenagers in a convenience store parking lot after they refused to turn down the volume of the “thug music” coming from their S.U.V. One of the teenagers, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was struck several times and died. During the trial, Florida’s Stand Your Ground law was invoked in Dunn’s defense. Dunn was found guilty on attempted murder charges, but not on a first-degree murder charge for killing Davis. The jury was unable to decide whether Dunn protected himself against Davis or murdered him. Once again, Stand your Ground was at the center of a murder case mired in racial discord.
Florida’s Stand your Ground statute says that a person may use force, “including deadly force if [he] reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself …” It is a logical extension of the increasingly expansive gun legislation in many parts of the country. Ohio recently approved its own version of the law, and others are poised to join in. Still, controversies surrounding the law continue to pile up.
Last month in Tampa, Curtis Reeves, a retired police officer, shot another man during an argument at a movie theater. Chad Oulson had irritated Reeves by texting as the movie began (it was learned afterward that he was texting the babysitter at home with his sick child). The two men argued; Oulson stood to face Reeves and threw popcorn at him. Reeves then pulled his handgun from his pocket and killed Oulson. Reeves’s lawyer, Stephen Romine, announced his intention to invoke Stand Your Ground in his client’s defense.
The letter of the law, Romine argued, is concerned only with whether “Reeves thought Chad Oulson would hurt him.” A report in The Times noted that Mr. Dunn was subject to similar protections: “[U]nder the law, Mr. Dunn needed only to have been convinced that he saw a shotgun, whether or not one was present.”
I believe that Stand Your Ground has already done damage to civil society by encouraging gun owners to carry their weapons in public, and reach for them quickly, instinctively. It promises to escalate minor altercations into deadly conflicts. And the law will surely motivate others to be armed, too, if only to protect themselves from trigger-happy citizens like Reeves or Dunn. Stand Your Ground propels us into the worst kind of armed society.
But certainly not all agree. Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, has offered this defense of the law, urging us to sympathize with those who would “stand their ground”: “Have you ever been threatened? I mean you talk to crime victims in the country… it’s the most terrifying moment of their life. They really are in a state of overwhelming reactive panic. Instinctively, they’ll do anything at that point to save themselves.” Such a threat is a highly personal affair — we can’t hope to understand or appreciate the terror, and how people measure it. Don’t judge them, LaPierre says. To judge them calmly after the fact and say, well, he could have run away, or defused the situation, that is too abstract, aloof, pompous, even insulting. It smacks of the elitism typical of gun critics, LaPierre argues. “This duty to retreat may sound fine at an Ivy League cocktail party,” he complains, “it doesn’t work very well in the real world of crime victims.”
II.
In a certain light, the statute is a great victory for the sovereignty of the individual, empowering each person to be his own judge and executive of the law in the heat of the moment. Such a view is often supported by way of reference to “natural rights,” divine (biblical) authority, and even in some cases, philosophical theory. Among the most important intellectual allies referenced in the American defense of self-defense is John Locke, the Enlightenment thinker who profoundly influenced America’s founding fathers and our present notion of liberal society.
Last year, not long after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the National Review columnist David French drew significant attention when he wrote, “gun control represents not merely a limitation on a constitutional right, but a limitation on a God-given right of man that has existed throughout the history of civil society.” French’s argument is heavy on biblical references, but in conclusion turns to Locke, in what others have cited as a shortsighted misreading of his work.
But is there something in Locke to support French’s view? At first glance, Locke may suggest even stronger gun rights support when he speaks of man as the “executioner of the Law of Nature,” which means to say we have an innate grasp of morality (the Law of Nature) and drive to carry it out. We are inspired to repay offenses with like or equivalent punishment; we have an intuitive grasp of “just reparations.” Thus far, Locke seems a likely sponsor of Stand Your Ground: it sanctions our acting on our innate moral drive, to see justice done — to right offenses and defend ourselves.
Because of our instinct to see justice done, and our grasp of what justice entails, our state of nature is not a Hobbesian “war of each on each.” And yet, Locke says we must depart nature where each is empowered to execute the Law of Nature because “it’s unreasonable for Men to be Judges in their own cases” since “self-love will make men partial to themselves and their friends” and “Ill Nature, Passion, Revenge will carry them too far in punishing others.”
Our innate drive for justice may well lead us astray — and be foiled. When we fail to grasp all the facts of a situation, such as the real intentions of a perceived attacker (or the state of his “weapon” — popcorn, for example), this may lead us to react with excessive and unjust force. In such cases, I need what Locke calls a Common Judge who might inform me better. An independent, objective Common Judge, to whom I shall defer, is one mark of civil society. Without recourse to a Common Judge, violent reprisals spawn violent reprisals in turn, which are each seemingly just, and a cycle of violence — a state of war — is born. Civil society, and its institution of a Common Judge who takes over executing the law of nature, relieves us of the “Inconveniences of the State of Nature,” Locke argues — which can be dire indeed.
Proponents and defenders of Stand Your Ground effectively wish to return us to a State of Nature and its attendant “Inconveniences” — and dangers. LaPierre urges individuals to presume the worst about supposed assailants — damn the consequences. As Locke has it, however, civil society is characterized by a departure from such presumption. When individuals feel such strong passions — anger, fear, hatred — and are liable to act irrationally and regrettably, that is precisely when they must be prevented, as far as possible, from wielding definitive force. And they must be thus prevented in order to honor and promote the instinct for justice surging through us. This is the critical role that civil society plays; for Locke, it perfects nature.
Gun rights advocates argue that we must arm more people, and empower them to wield their guns confidently and boldly if we would achieve greater law and order. They have it wrong. More guns, and more emboldened gun owners, lead to more travesties of justice, more chaos, vendettas, a state of war, Locke would say. Ironically, this also defeats the other cause célèbre of the gun rights movement: autonomy. For gun rights advocates, the gun is the premier mark of individual sovereignty. I believe this is what makes the gun rights movement especially intoxicating for millions of Americans, and resistant to reform and regulation. However, autonomy is doomed in a Stand Your Ground world. It makes no sense to speak of autonomy, freedom, or self-determination in a state of war. As Locke knew too well, the sovereignty of the individual is intolerably tenuous where all are sovereign. Of course, this suits the N.R.A. just fine, and the industry whose interests it represents.
Firmin DeBrabander, an associate professor of philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, is the author of “Spinoza and the Stoics” and a forthcoming book critiquing the gun rights
6) Locke and Load: The Fatal Error of the ‘Stand Your Ground’ Philosophy
I.
The anger and protest first sparked by the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, was stoked again last week with the verdict in the trial of Michael Dunn.
In 2012, Dunn opened fire into a car full of black teenagers in a convenience store parking lot after they refused to turn down the volume of the “thug music” coming from their S.U.V. One of the teenagers, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was struck several times and died. During the trial, Florida’s Stand Your Ground law was invoked in Dunn’s defense. Dunn was found guilty on attempted murder charges, but not on a first-degree murder charge for killing Davis. The jury was unable to decide whether Dunn protected himself against Davis or murdered him. Once again, Stand your Ground was at the center of a murder case mired in racial discord.
Florida’s Stand your Ground statute says that a person may use force, “including deadly force if [he] reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself …” It is a logical extension of the increasingly expansive gun legislation in many parts of the country. Ohio recently approved its own version of the law, and others are poised to join in. Still, controversies surrounding the law continue to pile up.
Last month in Tampa, Curtis Reeves, a retired police officer, shot another man during an argument at a movie theater. Chad Oulson had irritated Reeves by texting as the movie began (it was learned afterward that he was texting the babysitter at home with his sick child). The two men argued; Oulson stood to face Reeves and threw popcorn at him. Reeves then pulled his handgun from his pocket and killed Oulson. Reeves’s lawyer, Stephen Romine, announced his intention to invoke Stand Your Ground in his client’s defense.
The letter of the law, Romine argued, is concerned only with whether “Reeves thought Chad Oulson would hurt him.” A report in The Times noted that Mr. Dunn was subject to similar protections: “[U]nder the law, Mr. Dunn needed only to have been convinced that he saw a shotgun, whether or not one was present.”
I believe that Stand Your Ground has already done damage to civil society by encouraging gun owners to carry their weapons in public, and reach for them quickly, instinctively. It promises to escalate minor altercations into deadly conflicts. And the law will surely motivate others to be armed, too, if only to protect themselves from trigger-happy citizens like Reeves or Dunn. Stand Your Ground propels us into the worst kind of armed society.
But certainly not all agree. Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, has offered this defense of the law, urging us to sympathize with those who would “stand their ground”: “Have you ever been threatened? I mean you talk to crime victims in the country… it’s the most terrifying moment of their life. They really are in a state of overwhelming reactive panic. Instinctively, they’ll do anything at that point to save themselves.” Such a threat is a highly personal affair — we can’t hope to understand or appreciate the terror, and how people measure it. Don’t judge them, LaPierre says. To judge them calmly after the fact and say, well, he could have run away, or defused the situation, that is too abstract, aloof, pompous, even insulting. It smacks of the elitism typical of gun critics, LaPierre argues. “This duty to retreat may sound fine at an Ivy League cocktail party,” he complains, “it doesn’t work very well in the real world of crime victims.”
II.
In a certain light, the statute is a great victory for the sovereignty of the individual, empowering each person to be his own judge and executive of the law in the heat of the moment. Such a view is often supported by way of reference to “natural rights,” divine (biblical) authority, and even in some cases, philosophical theory. Among the most important intellectual allies referenced in the American defense of self-defense is John Locke, the Enlightenment thinker who profoundly influenced America’s founding fathers and our present notion of liberal society.
Last year, not long after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the National Review columnist David French drew significant attention when he wrote, “gun control represents not merely a limitation on a constitutional right, but a limitation on a God-given right of man that has existed throughout the history of civil society.” French’s argument is heavy on biblical references, but in conclusion turns to Locke, in what others have cited as a shortsighted misreading of his work.
But is there something in Locke to support French’s view? At first glance, Locke may suggest even stronger gun rights support when he speaks of man as the “executioner of the Law of Nature,” which means to say we have an innate grasp of morality (the Law of Nature) and drive to carry it out. We are inspired to repay offenses with like or equivalent punishment; we have an intuitive grasp of “just reparations.” Thus far, Locke seems a likely sponsor of Stand Your Ground: it sanctions our acting on our innate moral drive, to see justice done — to right offenses and defend ourselves.
Because of our instinct to see justice done, and our grasp of what justice entails, our state of nature is not a Hobbesian “war of each on each.” And yet, Locke says we must depart nature where each is empowered to execute the Law of Nature because “it’s unreasonable for Men to be Judges in their own cases” since “self-love will make men partial to themselves and their friends” and “Ill Nature, Passion, Revenge will carry them too far in punishing others.”
Our innate drive for justice may well lead us astray — and be foiled. When we fail to grasp all the facts of a situation, such as the real intentions of a perceived attacker (or the state of his “weapon” — popcorn, for example), this may lead us to react with excessive and unjust force. In such cases, I need what Locke calls a Common Judge who might inform me better. An independent, objective Common Judge, to whom I shall defer, is one mark of civil society. Without recourse to a Common Judge, violent reprisals spawn violent reprisals in turn, which are each seemingly just, and a cycle of violence — a state of war — is born. Civil society, and its institution of a Common Judge who takes over executing the law of nature, relieves us of the “Inconveniences of the State of Nature,” Locke argues — which can be dire indeed.
Proponents and defenders of Stand Your Ground effectively wish to return us to a State of Nature and its attendant “Inconveniences” — and dangers. LaPierre urges individuals to presume the worst about supposed assailants — damn the consequences. As Locke has it, however, civil society is characterized by a departure from such presumption. When individuals feel such strong passions — anger, fear, hatred — and are liable to act irrationally and regrettably, that is precisely when they must be prevented, as far as possible, from wielding definitive force. And they must be thus prevented in order to honor and promote the instinct for justice surging through us. This is the critical role that civil society plays; for Locke, it perfects nature.
Gun rights advocates argue that we must arm more people, and empower them to wield their guns confidently and boldly if we would achieve greater law and order. They have it wrong. More guns, and more emboldened gun owners, lead to more travesties of justice, more chaos, vendettas, a state of war, Locke would say. Ironically, this also defeats the other cause célèbre of the gun rights movement: autonomy. For gun rights advocates, the gun is the premier mark of individual sovereignty. I believe this is what makes the gun rights movement especially intoxicating for millions of Americans, and resistant to reform and regulation. However, autonomy is doomed in a Stand Your Ground world. It makes no sense to speak of autonomy, freedom, or self-determination in a state of war. As Locke knew too well, the sovereignty of the individual is intolerably tenuous where all are sovereign. Of course, this suits the N.R.A. just fine, and the industry whose interests it represents.
Firmin DeBrabander, an associate professor of philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, is the author of “Spinoza and the Stoics” and a forthcoming book critiquing the gun rights
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7) First Companies Give to Fund for Victims of Bangladeshi Factory Collapse
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8) Young Immigrants Turn Focus to President in Struggle Over Deportations
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9) Colorblind Notion Aside, Colleges Grapple With Racial Tension
9) Colorblind Notion Aside, Colleges Grapple With Racial Tension
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10) Suit Seeks Relief for Trade School Students With Years of Debt but No Career
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11) New F.D.A. Nutrition Labels Would Make ‘Serving Sizes’ Reflect Actual Servings
11) New F.D.A. Nutrition Labels Would Make ‘Serving Sizes’ Reflect Actual Servings
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12) Pivotal Point Is Seen as More States Consider Legalizing Marijuana
12) Pivotal Point Is Seen as More States Consider Legalizing Marijuana
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13) Fertilizer Limits Sought Near Lake Erie to Fight Spread of Algae
13) Fertilizer Limits Sought Near Lake Erie to Fight Spread of Algae
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14) Justices Rule Against Man Over a Zone for Protests
14) Justices Rule Against Man Over a Zone for Protests
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15) Plan Offers No Picnic for Union Square Park
By
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16) Spike Lee Exchange Highlights Gentrification Debate
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17) When May I Shoot a Student?
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18) U.S. Militant, Hidden, Spurs Drone Debate
18) U.S. Militant, Hidden, Spurs Drone Debate
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19) Rare Supreme Court Outburst Caught on Even Rarer Videos
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20) Evidence of Concealed Jailhouse Deal Raises Questions About a Texas Execution
20) Evidence of Concealed Jailhouse Deal Raises Questions About a Texas Execution
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21) Workers at Nuclear Waste Site in New Mexico Inhaled Radioactive Materials
21) Workers at Nuclear Waste Site in New Mexico Inhaled Radioactive Materials
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22) Six S.F. officers indicted over residential hotel searches
Henry K. Lee and Jaxon Van Derbeken
22) Six S.F. officers indicted over residential hotel searches
Henry K. Lee and Jaxon Van Derbeken
Updated 10:37 pm, Thursday, February 27, 2014
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/6-S-F-officers-indicted-over-residential-hotel-5273906.php
Five veteran San Francisco police officers and a
former officer faced federal corruption charges Thursday after a
three-year investigation that began when the city's public defender
released surveillance videos appearing to show officers abusing and
stealing from residential hotel dwellers.
The grand jury indictments allege that after the FBI and San Francisco police launched a probe in March 2011, they learned three of the officers had stolen a batch of seized marijuana two years earlier. One of those officers, Reynaldo Vargas, delivered the pot to a couple of street informants, told them to sell it and then took a split of the proceeds, federal prosecutors said.
The indictments were unsealed Thursday. They represent one of the biggest scandals to hit the police force since the Fajitagate case, which stemmed from a 2002 fight between three off-duty officers and two men over a bag of fajitas and led to allegations of a cover-up - but no criminal convictions.
Three of the officers charged this week face accusations directly related to the residential hotel searches that were brought to light by city Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
Officers Arshad Razzak, 41, Richard Yick, 36, and Raul Eric Elias, 44, all formerly assigned to the Southern Police Station, are accused of conspiring to threaten and intimidate residents of single-room occupancy hotels by entering units without legal justification by using a master key.
Razzak and Yick also are accused of falsifying police incident reports, federal prosecutors said.
Vargas, who had served 13 years on the force when he was fired in May 2012, used the Apple gift card to buy an iPhone and an iPod Nano at an Apple Store in San Francisco in March 2009, authorities said. They said that transaction happened three weeks before the marijuana deal with the informants.
Elias has been with the department for 12 years, Robles for 22 years, Yick for 13 years and Razzak for 19 years. Furminger, also a 19-year veteran, was charged with extorting property from an individual, but the indictment didn't provide details underlying the charge.
Vargas, who turned himself in after the indictment was unsealed, pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate Thursday afternoon and was released on a $50,000 bond.
The five other defendants are expected to appear in court Friday.
Robles and an attorney for Elias declined to comment. Lawyers for the other three officers did not return messages. Each of the five officers has been suspended without pay.
"The government gets to indict by dragging selected witnesses in front of a secret grand jury and asking them leading questions," Stern said.
San Francisco Police Officers Association President Martin Halloran echoed that sentiment in a statement.
"These indictments are apparently based on the questionable testimony of unreliable informant witnesses," he said. "It is important to remember that the accused officers will have their day in court."
At a Hall of Justice news conference, a visibly shaken Police Chief Greg Suhr said, "I don't know that it gets any worse than this, other than an officer-involved serious injury or death, when the public trust is betrayed by a sitting San Francisco or any police officer.
The grand jury indictments allege that after the FBI and San Francisco police launched a probe in March 2011, they learned three of the officers had stolen a batch of seized marijuana two years earlier. One of those officers, Reynaldo Vargas, delivered the pot to a couple of street informants, told them to sell it and then took a split of the proceeds, federal prosecutors said.
The indictments were unsealed Thursday. They represent one of the biggest scandals to hit the police force since the Fajitagate case, which stemmed from a 2002 fight between three off-duty officers and two men over a bag of fajitas and led to allegations of a cover-up - but no criminal convictions.
Three of the officers charged this week face accusations directly related to the residential hotel searches that were brought to light by city Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
Officers Arshad Razzak, 41, Richard Yick, 36, and Raul Eric Elias, 44, all formerly assigned to the Southern Police Station, are accused of conspiring to threaten and intimidate residents of single-room occupancy hotels by entering units without legal justification by using a master key.
Razzak and Yick also are accused of falsifying police incident reports, federal prosecutors said.
'Criminal conspiracies'
Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, Officer Edmond Robles, 46, and Vargas, 45, of Palm Desert (Riverside County), engaged in "multiple criminal conspiracies," including dealing marijuana, stealing a $500 Apple gift card and other valuables from suspects, and stealing money, drugs and other items that were seized on behalf of the city, their indictment said.Vargas, who had served 13 years on the force when he was fired in May 2012, used the Apple gift card to buy an iPhone and an iPod Nano at an Apple Store in San Francisco in March 2009, authorities said. They said that transaction happened three weeks before the marijuana deal with the informants.
Elias has been with the department for 12 years, Robles for 22 years, Yick for 13 years and Razzak for 19 years. Furminger, also a 19-year veteran, was charged with extorting property from an individual, but the indictment didn't provide details underlying the charge.
Vargas, who turned himself in after the indictment was unsealed, pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate Thursday afternoon and was released on a $50,000 bond.
The five other defendants are expected to appear in court Friday.
Robles and an attorney for Elias declined to comment. Lawyers for the other three officers did not return messages. Each of the five officers has been suspended without pay.
Officer appealing dismissal
Vargas' lawyer, Harry Stern, said he will examine the charges closely. He said Vargas still has an appeal of his firing pending in the courts and is taking science courses in hopes of becoming a medical technician."The government gets to indict by dragging selected witnesses in front of a secret grand jury and asking them leading questions," Stern said.
San Francisco Police Officers Association President Martin Halloran echoed that sentiment in a statement.
"These indictments are apparently based on the questionable testimony of unreliable informant witnesses," he said. "It is important to remember that the accused officers will have their day in court."
At a Hall of Justice news conference, a visibly shaken Police Chief Greg Suhr said, "I don't know that it gets any worse than this, other than an officer-involved serious injury or death, when the public trust is betrayed by a sitting San Francisco or any police officer.
"This is not only a betrayal of the public's trust," he said, "but also a betrayal of all the men and women of the San Francisco Police Department who work hard every day to do what they can to keep San Francisco safe."
Suhr said he will seek the "immediate termination" of any officer found guilty of any of the charges.
At his own news conference, Adachi said more than 100 criminal cases, most of them felonies, were dismissed after the officers' conduct during searches came to light. He said complaints about such abuses had rolled in for years, but "the justice system turned a blind eye."
"It's important for San Franciscans to understand that this is not a situation where these officers were committing mere technicalities, but instead they were actively engaged in criminal conduct," Adachi said. "Violating the constitutional rights, even of someone suspected of a crime, is still a crime."
Some of the officers who were indicted have been accused of wrongdoing in the past, including in connection with drug searches. Vargas was part of a team of officers based at the Mission District Station whose conduct in a February 2011 drug-related search of a residential hotel on Julian Street brought FBI scrutiny.
Surveillance video of the officers taken inside the Julian House Hotel appeared to show Vargas walking out of the search target's room with a bag of the person's possessions, which Vargas never checked into evidence. Another officer was filmed walking out with a bag that authorities believe contained the person's laptop computer, which police also never submitted as evidence.
Vargas was also among several officers involved at a drug-related search in December 2010 at another residential hotel, the Jefferson on Eddy Street in the Tenderloin. One of Vargas' colleagues was filmed by a surveillance camera there taking away a bag of undisclosed possessions, which the officers never accounted for.
In 2012, two men and a woman sued Razzak, Elias and Yick in a federal civil rights case, alleging the officers wrongfully arrested them at the Henry Hotel at 106 Sixth St. The suit was settled in November for $125,000.
The men's attorney, John Burris, said Thursday that while the hotel residents were struggling financially, they deserved protection because "their houses are sacred to them." Instead, he said, officers treated them in a way that was "scandalous, outrageous and disrespectful."
Chronicle staff writers Kale Williams, Bob Egelko and Vivian Ho contributed to this report.
Suhr said he will seek the "immediate termination" of any officer found guilty of any of the charges.
At his own news conference, Adachi said more than 100 criminal cases, most of them felonies, were dismissed after the officers' conduct during searches came to light. He said complaints about such abuses had rolled in for years, but "the justice system turned a blind eye."
"It's important for San Franciscans to understand that this is not a situation where these officers were committing mere technicalities, but instead they were actively engaged in criminal conduct," Adachi said. "Violating the constitutional rights, even of someone suspected of a crime, is still a crime."
Leaving rooms with bags
The investigation began after San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who had been police chief until January 2011, referred the matter to federal authorities because of a conflict of interest. In March 2011, Adachi had released surveillance videos from the Henry Hotel in the South of Market neighborhood, asserting that several officers entered rooms without legal cause.Some of the officers who were indicted have been accused of wrongdoing in the past, including in connection with drug searches. Vargas was part of a team of officers based at the Mission District Station whose conduct in a February 2011 drug-related search of a residential hotel on Julian Street brought FBI scrutiny.
Surveillance video of the officers taken inside the Julian House Hotel appeared to show Vargas walking out of the search target's room with a bag of the person's possessions, which Vargas never checked into evidence. Another officer was filmed walking out with a bag that authorities believe contained the person's laptop computer, which police also never submitted as evidence.
Vargas was also among several officers involved at a drug-related search in December 2010 at another residential hotel, the Jefferson on Eddy Street in the Tenderloin. One of Vargas' colleagues was filmed by a surveillance camera there taking away a bag of undisclosed possessions, which the officers never accounted for.
In 2012, two men and a woman sued Razzak, Elias and Yick in a federal civil rights case, alleging the officers wrongfully arrested them at the Henry Hotel at 106 Sixth St. The suit was settled in November for $125,000.
'Scandalous, outrageous'
This week's indictment accuses Yick of falsifying an official pay slip that purportedly documented a payment to an informant for providing information that led to the arrest of one of the two men.The men's attorney, John Burris, said Thursday that while the hotel residents were struggling financially, they deserved protection because "their houses are sacred to them." Instead, he said, officers treated them in a way that was "scandalous, outrageous and disrespectful."
Chronicle staff writers Kale Williams, Bob Egelko and Vivian Ho contributed to this report.
Henry K. Lee and Jaxon Van Derbeken are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com, jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee, @jvanderbeken
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23) Some indicted S.F. officers accused of wrongdoing in past
"Officer Arshad Razzak, 41, who was hired the same day as Furminger, was one of several officers who fired a total of 20 rounds at a mentally disturbed man, 23-year-old Idriss Stelley, as he swung a jackknife on a 13-inch chain above his head in the Metreon movie complex in June 2011. Stelley was killed, and an officer was wounded.
A police investigation concluded that the officers acted properly, and the district attorney's office found they committed no crime. After Stelley's mother, Mesha Monge-Irizarry, filed a lawsuit accusing the department of using excessive force and poorly training the officers, the city denied liability but paid $500,000 to settle the case."
Henry K. Lee
23) Some indicted S.F. officers accused of wrongdoing in past
"Officer Arshad Razzak, 41, who was hired the same day as Furminger, was one of several officers who fired a total of 20 rounds at a mentally disturbed man, 23-year-old Idriss Stelley, as he swung a jackknife on a 13-inch chain above his head in the Metreon movie complex in June 2011. Stelley was killed, and an officer was wounded.
A police investigation concluded that the officers acted properly, and the district attorney's office found they committed no crime. After Stelley's mother, Mesha Monge-Irizarry, filed a lawsuit accusing the department of using excessive force and poorly training the officers, the city denied liability but paid $500,000 to settle the case."
Henry K. Lee
Updated 6:04 am, Friday, February 28, 2014
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Some-indicted-S-F-officers-accused-of-wrongdoing-5274888.php
The San Francisco police officers indicted by a federal grand jury this week are veterans of the force with 12 to 22 years of experience. Some have faced allegations of wrongdoing before, including Reynaldo Vargas, who was fired in 2012 and who now faces the most serious allegations.
Vargas, who is 45 and lives in Palm Desert (Riverside County), sued the Police Department in November 2013, claiming he was wrongly fired after 13 years based on unfounded allegations. He had been terminated for putting in for overtime while testifying in court cases during regular hours, according to his suit. He said the practice was common among other officers but that he was the only one fired.
In 2002, Vargas was suspended for six months after being accused of gouging a man's face with a broken crack pipe after he took him off a cable car for fare evasion. He admitted in 2005 to using excessive force, and the city paid the victim $60,000 to settle a lawsuit.
Vargas' lawyer, Harry Stern, said Thursday that he will examine the indictment closely and noted that grand juries meet in secret, hearing only from prosecutors and the witnesses they select. He said Vargas still has an appeal of his firing pending, and is now taking science courses in hopes of becoming a medical technician.
Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, was one of three police officers named in a 2005 lawsuit in which a man said officers caught him urinating in the street, then forced him to kneel down and use his hair to mop up after himself. The city settled the suit for $83,000.
The plaintiff said Furminger, a 19-year veteran of the force, had stood by as the other two officers made him mop up the urine. Furminger said in court papers that he hadn't seen any wrongdoing, and the Police Department did not discipline him. Soon after, he was promoted to sergeant.
In 2000, Furminger was awarded the department's highest honor, a Gold Medal for Valor, for a 1998 incident in which police fatally shot an advertising executive on Sixth Street. Furminger and another officer were honored for their "outstanding bravery" in the shooting, which began after they saw the executive, John Smart, fighting with a prostitute at Sixth and Howard streets.
After the officers approached the car, Smart slammed his silver Mercedes-Benz into reverse, pinning Furminger against a parking meter, then drove at the other officer. Both fired a total of 15 times, striking Smart with four bullets. Smart, who had crack cocaine in his pocket, died at the scene.
Officer Arshad Razzak, 41, who was hired the same day as Furminger, was one of several officers who fired a total of 20 rounds at a mentally disturbed man, 23-year-old Idriss Stelley, as he swung a jackknife on a 13-inch chain above his head in the Metreon movie complex in June 2011. Stelley was killed, and an officer was wounded.
A police investigation concluded that the officers acted properly, and the district attorney's office found they committed no crime. After Stelley's mother, Mesha Monge-Irizarry, filed a lawsuit accusing the department of using excessive force and poorly training the officers, the city denied liability but paid $500,000 to settle the case.
Chronicle staff writers Jaxon Van Derbeken and Bob Egelko contributed to this report.
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
The San Francisco police officers indicted by a federal grand jury this week are veterans of the force with 12 to 22 years of experience. Some have faced allegations of wrongdoing before, including Reynaldo Vargas, who was fired in 2012 and who now faces the most serious allegations.
Vargas, who is 45 and lives in Palm Desert (Riverside County), sued the Police Department in November 2013, claiming he was wrongly fired after 13 years based on unfounded allegations. He had been terminated for putting in for overtime while testifying in court cases during regular hours, according to his suit. He said the practice was common among other officers but that he was the only one fired.
In 2002, Vargas was suspended for six months after being accused of gouging a man's face with a broken crack pipe after he took him off a cable car for fare evasion. He admitted in 2005 to using excessive force, and the city paid the victim $60,000 to settle a lawsuit.
Vargas' lawyer, Harry Stern, said Thursday that he will examine the indictment closely and noted that grand juries meet in secret, hearing only from prosecutors and the witnesses they select. He said Vargas still has an appeal of his firing pending, and is now taking science courses in hopes of becoming a medical technician.
Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, was one of three police officers named in a 2005 lawsuit in which a man said officers caught him urinating in the street, then forced him to kneel down and use his hair to mop up after himself. The city settled the suit for $83,000.
The plaintiff said Furminger, a 19-year veteran of the force, had stood by as the other two officers made him mop up the urine. Furminger said in court papers that he hadn't seen any wrongdoing, and the Police Department did not discipline him. Soon after, he was promoted to sergeant.
In 2000, Furminger was awarded the department's highest honor, a Gold Medal for Valor, for a 1998 incident in which police fatally shot an advertising executive on Sixth Street. Furminger and another officer were honored for their "outstanding bravery" in the shooting, which began after they saw the executive, John Smart, fighting with a prostitute at Sixth and Howard streets.
After the officers approached the car, Smart slammed his silver Mercedes-Benz into reverse, pinning Furminger against a parking meter, then drove at the other officer. Both fired a total of 15 times, striking Smart with four bullets. Smart, who had crack cocaine in his pocket, died at the scene.
Officer Arshad Razzak, 41, who was hired the same day as Furminger, was one of several officers who fired a total of 20 rounds at a mentally disturbed man, 23-year-old Idriss Stelley, as he swung a jackknife on a 13-inch chain above his head in the Metreon movie complex in June 2011. Stelley was killed, and an officer was wounded.
A police investigation concluded that the officers acted properly, and the district attorney's office found they committed no crime. After Stelley's mother, Mesha Monge-Irizarry, filed a lawsuit accusing the department of using excessive force and poorly training the officers, the city denied liability but paid $500,000 to settle the case.
Chronicle staff writers Jaxon Van Derbeken and Bob Egelko contributed to this report.
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
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24) Rift at Jewish School in Manhattan Over Canceled Plan for Israeli-Palestinian Talk
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B.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Get on the bus to Sacramento!
Education for All! Stop Privatization!
Defend Community Colleges!
Monday, March 3, 2014
The Save CCSF Coalition is organizing for the annual March in March that brings students, faculty and community to the state capital to let our elected officials know that education is a right and should be accessible to all.
If you would like to ride the bus to Sacramento, fill out the attached form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_q1tsRv2RvYRfOsLQ6RbNoas5FQaZUAaeAqhDpVrqBc/viewform
If you would like to donate for the cost of the bus and other Save CCSF actions, please make a check payable to SAVE CCSF and write Bus for March in March in the memo and mail to:
Rodger Scott
1249 Hayes St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Contact Nancy Reiko Kato at nrkato@rocketmail.com or 415.994.5785 for more info or to get involved.
www.saveccsf.org * info@saveccsf.org
--
Check out the Save CCSF Webpage here:
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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Take to the streets on International Women’s Day
What do we do? Stand up, fight back!
Stop violence against women
Drop the charges against Marissa Alexander
Full reproductive rights now
On March 8, International Women’s Day, WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend) will hold actions in cities across the United States. We will be taking to the streets in defense of women’s rights, which are under attack on many different fronts.
Violence against women is an epidemic in U.S. society. One in three women will experience violence from their partner in their lifetime. But the epidemic isn’t limited to sexual assault. 53 percent of anti-LGBTQ homicides are against transgender women. Domestic violence is a widespread problem that is not remotely addressed by the sexist, racist, and bigoted (in)justice system.
Marissa Alexander’s case—among many others—highlights the contradictions of a society that punishes victims of abuse when they defend themselves. Marissa Alexander is a 33-year-old African American woman, mother, and survivor of domestic violence. Under mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending herself against an abuser in the same state that let George Zimmerman walk free. Though the original sentence was thrown out by the judge, Marissa is still being prosecuted. All charges against Marissa should be dropped! We must stand with Marissa, demand her freedom, and fight to end all forms of violence against women!
The society we live in not only condones and minimizes sexual assault and all violence against women, but blames and criminalizes the victims. Last year, in Stuebenville, Ohio, authorities covered up rape until the community protested. Two years prior, school authorities and the police colluded to punish 17-year-old Rachel Bradshaw when she reported being sexually assaulted. We must stand up against this system that protects the attackers and isolates the victims.
The treatment of women in a society is a direct reflection of their position in that society. In this society, women are not guaranteed full rights, either to equal pay or to control over our own bodies. At the same time that violence against women is condoned, reproductive rights are under heightened attack. The year 2013 nearly broke the all-time record for the most new restrictions on abortion passed in a single year.
More anti-choice laws have been passed in the last three years than in the entire previous decade. While Roe v. Wade still stands, in many places women are unable to actually get a safe and legal abortion. Focusing particularly on Southern and Midwestern states, the right-wing campaign is trying to chip away at the rights won by the Roe v Wade decision. They were defeated in Albuquerque in November but have been successful in other states and have introduced new legislation that will be considered this year in North Dakota, Ohio and elsewhere.
We must unite and fight the economic, political and social attacks on women’s rights. It is up to us to make 2014 a turning point for women’s rights! We will not allow the politicians to define 2014 as a year of continued attacks on women’s reproductive rights, which is why we must take to the streets to stop these attacks. International Women’s Day—a day of protest and celebration across the world that originated with the protest of women against exploitation in the factories—is an important day for us to gather and take action to resist these attacks and defend women’s rights.
Join us in saying:
Women’s Rights Are Under Attack - What do we do? Stand up, fight back!
Stop violence against women!
Drop the charges against Marissa Alexander!
Full reproductive rights now!
Join WORD on March 8 in a city near you or call an action in your city and add it to the list!
www.DefendWomensRights.org
info@DefendWomensRights.org
Chicago: 773-828-9205 or chicago@defendwomensrights.org
Connecticut: 203-787-8232 or ct@defendwomensrights.org
Los Angeles: 323-394-3611 or la@DefendWomensRights.org
New York: 347-292-WORD (9673) or nyc@defendwomensrights.org
San Francisco: 415-375-9502 or sf@DefendWomensRights.org
Get on the bus to Sacramento!
Education for All! Stop Privatization!
Defend Community Colleges!
Monday, March 3, 2014
The Save CCSF Coalition is organizing for the annual March in March that brings students, faculty and community to the state capital to let our elected officials know that education is a right and should be accessible to all.
If you would like to ride the bus to Sacramento, fill out the attached form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_q1tsRv2RvYRfOsLQ6RbNoas5FQaZUAaeAqhDpVrqBc/viewform
If you would like to donate for the cost of the bus and other Save CCSF actions, please make a check payable to SAVE CCSF and write Bus for March in March in the memo and mail to:
Rodger Scott
1249 Hayes St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Contact Nancy Reiko Kato at nrkato@rocketmail.com or 415.994.5785 for more info or to get involved.
www.saveccsf.org * info@saveccsf.org
--
Check out the Save CCSF Webpage here:
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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Take to the streets on International Women’s Day
Speak-out
Saturday, March 8, 12:00 Noon
24th and Mission Sts.
San Francisco, California
Info: sf@defendwomensrights.org or 415-375-9502
Women’s Rights Are Under AttackWhat do we do? Stand up, fight back!
Stop violence against women
Drop the charges against Marissa Alexander
Full reproductive rights now
On March 8, International Women’s Day, WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend) will hold actions in cities across the United States. We will be taking to the streets in defense of women’s rights, which are under attack on many different fronts.
Violence against women is an epidemic in U.S. society. One in three women will experience violence from their partner in their lifetime. But the epidemic isn’t limited to sexual assault. 53 percent of anti-LGBTQ homicides are against transgender women. Domestic violence is a widespread problem that is not remotely addressed by the sexist, racist, and bigoted (in)justice system.
Marissa Alexander’s case—among many others—highlights the contradictions of a society that punishes victims of abuse when they defend themselves. Marissa Alexander is a 33-year-old African American woman, mother, and survivor of domestic violence. Under mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending herself against an abuser in the same state that let George Zimmerman walk free. Though the original sentence was thrown out by the judge, Marissa is still being prosecuted. All charges against Marissa should be dropped! We must stand with Marissa, demand her freedom, and fight to end all forms of violence against women!
The society we live in not only condones and minimizes sexual assault and all violence against women, but blames and criminalizes the victims. Last year, in Stuebenville, Ohio, authorities covered up rape until the community protested. Two years prior, school authorities and the police colluded to punish 17-year-old Rachel Bradshaw when she reported being sexually assaulted. We must stand up against this system that protects the attackers and isolates the victims.
The treatment of women in a society is a direct reflection of their position in that society. In this society, women are not guaranteed full rights, either to equal pay or to control over our own bodies. At the same time that violence against women is condoned, reproductive rights are under heightened attack. The year 2013 nearly broke the all-time record for the most new restrictions on abortion passed in a single year.
More anti-choice laws have been passed in the last three years than in the entire previous decade. While Roe v. Wade still stands, in many places women are unable to actually get a safe and legal abortion. Focusing particularly on Southern and Midwestern states, the right-wing campaign is trying to chip away at the rights won by the Roe v Wade decision. They were defeated in Albuquerque in November but have been successful in other states and have introduced new legislation that will be considered this year in North Dakota, Ohio and elsewhere.
We must unite and fight the economic, political and social attacks on women’s rights. It is up to us to make 2014 a turning point for women’s rights! We will not allow the politicians to define 2014 as a year of continued attacks on women’s reproductive rights, which is why we must take to the streets to stop these attacks. International Women’s Day—a day of protest and celebration across the world that originated with the protest of women against exploitation in the factories—is an important day for us to gather and take action to resist these attacks and defend women’s rights.
Join us in saying:
Women’s Rights Are Under Attack - What do we do? Stand up, fight back!
Stop violence against women!
Drop the charges against Marissa Alexander!
Full reproductive rights now!
www.DefendWomensRights.org
info@DefendWomensRights.org
Chicago: 773-828-9205 or chicago@defendwomensrights.org
Connecticut: 203-787-8232 or ct@defendwomensrights.org
Los Angeles: 323-394-3611 or la@DefendWomensRights.org
New York: 347-292-WORD (9673) or nyc@defendwomensrights.org
San Francisco: 415-375-9502 or sf@DefendWomensRights.org
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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End Drone Killing, Drone Surveillance and Global
Militarization
United National Antiwar Coalition Call for Spring Days of
Action 2014
Today we issue an international call for Spring Days of Action—2014, a coordinated campaign in April and May to end drone killings, drone surveillance and global militarization.
The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers.
The campaign will provide information on:
1. The suffering of tens-of-thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constant drone surveillance on community life.
2. How attack and surveillance drones have become a key element in a massive wave of surveillance, clandestine military attacks and militarization generated by the United States to protect a global system of manufacture and oil and mineral exploitation that is creating unemployment and poverty, accelerating the waste of nonrenewable resources and contributing to environmental destruction and global warming.
In addition to cases in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, we will examine President Obama’s “pivot” into the Asia-Pacific, where the United States has already sold and deployed drones in the vanguard of a shift of 60 percent of its military forces to try to control China and to enforce the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership. We will show, among other things, how this surge of “pivot” forces, greatly enabled by drones, and supported by the U.S. military-industrial complex, will hit every American community with even deeper cuts in the already fragile social programs on which people rely for survival. In short, we will connect drones and militarization with “austerity” in America.
3. How drone attacks have effectively destroyed international and domestic legal protection of the rights to life, privacy, freedom of assembly and free speech and have opened the way for new levels of surveillance and repression around the world, and how, in the United States, increasing drone surveillance, added to surveillance by the National Security Agency and police, provides a new weapon to repress black, Hispanic, immigrant and low-income communities and to intimidate Americans who are increasingly unsettled by lack of jobs, economic inequality, corporate control of politics and the prospect of endless war.
We will discuss how the United States government and corporations conspire secretly to monitor U.S. citizens and particularly how the Administration is accelerating drone surveillance operations and surveillance inside the United States with the same disregard for transparency and law that it applies to other countries, all with the cooperation of the Congress.
The campaign will encourage activists around the world to win passage of local laws that prohibit weaponized drones and drone surveillance from being used in their communities as well as seeking national laws to bar the use of weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will draw attention to the call for a ban on weaponized drones by RootsAction.org that has generated a petition with over 80,000 signers:
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180
And to efforts by the Granny Peace Brigade (New York City), KnowDrones.org and others to achieve an international ban on both weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will also urge participation in the World Beyond War movement.
The following individuals and organizations endorse
this Call:
Lyn Adamson, Co-chair, Canadian Voice of Women for
Peace; Dennis Apel, Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California; Judy Bello, Upstate
NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink;
Leah Bolger, Former National President, Veterans for Peace; Canadian Voice of
Women for Peace; Sung-Hee Choi, Gangjeong Village International Team, Jeju,
Korea; Chelsea C. Faria, Graduate student, Yale Divinity School; Promoting
Enduring Peace; Sandy Fessler, Rochester (NY) Against War; Joy First; Bruce K.
Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Holly
Gwinn Graham, Singer/songwriter, Olympia, WA; Regina Hagen, Darmstaedter
Friedensforum, Germany; Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Malachy
Kilbride; Marilyn Levin and Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinators, United National
Antiwar Coalition; Tamara Lorincz, Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada; Nick
Mottern, KnowDrones.org; Agneta
Norberg, Swedish Peace Council; Pepperwolf, Director, Women Against Military
Madness; Lindis Percy, Coordinator, Campaign for the Accountability of American;
Bases CAAB UK; Mathias Quackenbush, San Francisco, CA; Lisa Savage, Code
Pink, State of Maine; Janice Sevre-Duszynska; Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck, Friedenswerkstatt
Mutlangen, Germany; Cindy Sheehan; Lucia Wilkes Smith, Convener, Women Against
Military Madness (WAMM), Ground; Military
Drones Committee; David Soumis, Veterans for Peace; No Drones Wisconsin; Debra
Sweet, World Can’t Wait; David Swanson, WarisACrime.org;
Brian Terrell, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; United National Antiwar
Coalition; Veterans for Peace; Dave Webb, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament (UK); Curt Wechsler, Fire John Paki Wieland, Northampton (MA)
Committee to Stop War(s); Loring Wirbel, Citizens for Peace in Space (Colorado
Springs, CO); Women Against Military Madness; Ann Wright, Retired U.S. Army
colonel and former diplomat; Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation.
United National Antiwar Coalition
UNACpeace@gmail.com
UNAC
P.O. Box 123
Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
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Sireen Khudairy Appeal Update.
Sireen
Khudairy was arrested again at 4am on Tuesday 7th January 2014. According to
reports she has been taken to Huwwara military point. When the Israeli army
took her from her home they didn't show any papers to her or the person she was
with.
This
follows eight months of harassment of this 24-year-old Palestinian woman who is
a teacher, activist and supporter of the non-violent action against the Israeli
occupation. She was previously imprisoned from May to July 2013, and has been
subjected to frequent harassment ever since. See further details at:
http://freesireen.wordpress.com
Please
help by contacting your Embassies urgently to demand her release and spread her
appeal widely. Follow updates on:
https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri?ref=hl
Please
contact us to let us know any action you take. We will pass this information on
to her family. Thanks for your solidarity and support.
Steven Katsineris, January 2014
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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PUSH
CHELSEA'S JAILERS TO RESPECT HER IDENTITY
Call
and write Ft Leavenworth today and tell them to honor Manning's wishes around
her name and gender:
Call:
(913) 758-3600
Write
to:
Col.
Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S.
Detention Barracks
1301
N Warehouse Rd
Ft.
Leavenworth KS 66027
Private
Manning has been an icon both for the government transparency movement and
LGBTQ activists because of her fearlessness and acts of conscience. Now, as she
begins serving her sentence, Chelsea has asked for help with legal appeals,
family visits, education, and support for undergoing gender transition. The
latter is a decision she’s made following years of experiencing gender
dysphoria and examining her options. At a difficult time in her life, she
joined the military out of hope–the hope that she could use her service to save
lives, and also the hope that it would help to suppress her feelings of gender
dysphoria. But after serving time in Iraq, Private Manning realized what
mattered to her most was the truth, personal as well as political, even when it
proved challenging.
Now
she wants the Fort Leavenworth military prison to allow her access to hormone
replacement therapy which she has offered to pay for herself, as she pursues
the process to have her name legally changed to ‘Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.’
To
encourage the prison to honor her transgender identity, we’re calling on
progressive supporters and allies to contact Fort Leavenworth officials
demanding they acknowledge her requested name change immediately. Currently,
prison officials are not required to respect Chelsea’s identity, and can even
refuse to deliver mail addressed to the name ‘Chelsea Manning.’ However, it’s
within prison administrators’ power to begin using the name ‘Chelsea Manning’
now, in advance of the legal name change which will most likely be approved
sometime next year. It’s also up to these officials to approve Private
Manning’s request for hormone therapy.
Call:
(913) 758-3600
Write
to:
Col.
Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S.
Detention Barracks
1301
N Warehouse Rd
Ft.
Leavenworth KS 66027
Tell
them: “Transgender rights are human rights! Respect Private Manning’s identity
by acknowledging the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ whenever possible, including in
mail addressed to her, and by allowing her access to appropriate medical
treatment for gender dysphoria, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT).”
While
openly transgender individuals are allowed to serve in many other militaries
around the world, the US military continues to deny their existence. Now, by
speaking up for Chelsea’s right to treatment, you can support one brave
whistleblower in her personal struggle, and help set an important benchmark for
the rights of transgender individuals everywhere. (Remember that letters
written with focus and a respectful tone are more likely to be effective.) Feel
free to copy this sample letter.
Earlier
this year, the Private Manning Support Network won the title of most
“absolutely fabulous overall contingent” at the San Francisco Pride Parade, the
largest celebration of its kind for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender
and Questioning) people nationwide. Over one thousand people marched for
Private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in that parade, to show LGBTQ
community pride for the Iraq War’s most well-known whistleblower.
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
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Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
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Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
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Read
the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he
leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March
1, 2013
Alternet
The
statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his
formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications
for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications.
This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's
pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted
1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy
Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in
recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists
being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists
know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full
the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The
NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists –
please click here to support the NLG.
We
strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided
below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number
(888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy.
This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the
NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the
FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives,
friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are
contacted as well.
You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement
Encounters
What
Rights Do I Have?
Whether
or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to
answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth
Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or
workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the
government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your
right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a
non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your
political activities.
Standing
Up For Free Speech
The
government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to
disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such
as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that
you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and
other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting
organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and
steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each
person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression
easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up
to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a
"subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI
surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended
FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance,
infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76
COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of
several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to
expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the
settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the
Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What
if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What
if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do
not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions.
Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that
your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping
outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or
office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and
then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent
or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the
information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly
harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future.
Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more
opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not
intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do
I have to answer questions?
You
have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to
answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been
arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that
you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you
make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme
Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a
waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your
rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There
is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which
require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been
detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer
in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you
reside.
Do
I have to give my name?
As
above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to
give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and
refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to
your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name
could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do
I need a lawyer?
You
have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer
questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you
are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer
present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once
you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop
trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to
one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone
number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your
lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless
you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able
to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If
I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have
something to hide?
Anything
you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never
tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated
to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental
right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents
are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining
silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain
silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent
to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to
get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide
you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact
is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone
you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You
should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights
and refusing to answer questions.
Can
agents search my home or office?
You
do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have
and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order
that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a
warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But
you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal
defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can
legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has
the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of
your workspace without your permission.
What
if agents have a search warrant?
If
you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the
warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the
people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the
search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you
are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they
searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses
to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed
in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking
to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first.
(Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory
visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant
is present.)
Do
I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No.
If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should
affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to
remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain
silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a
lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What
if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even
if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other
questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert
that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What
if the police stop me on the street?
Ask
if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the
police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being
detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have
reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more
than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep
searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged
with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You
do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not
consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What
if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep
your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you
must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance.
You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds
to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may
separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one
has to answer any questions.
What
if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write
down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You
have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and
their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and
take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as
possible.
What
if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer
their questions?
A
grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about
information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a
subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they
will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are
threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What
if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand
jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are
not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and
you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked
to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the
witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used
grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political
organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena
in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and
those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping
("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean
that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG
National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The
government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This
practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and
disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal
grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically
important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who
understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your
political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained
to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of
others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political
activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and
investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony,
should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in
your testimony.
Frequently
prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is
prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges
against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the
burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the
immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything
you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by
suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In
front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right
to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which
strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of
being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front
of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can
consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What
if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If
you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held
in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for
the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular
grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a
total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your
cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare
instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What
If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the
purposes of this pamphlet.
?
Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers
waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you
before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without
reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
?
Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of
an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard
to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain
your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney.
If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration
lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be
barred from returning.
Based
on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the
following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may
change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to
non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying
to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do
I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or
signing any DHS papers?
Yes.
You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you
have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to
have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do
not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration
proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you
a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should
I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If
you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them
with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or
criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization
Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status
will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you
could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers
with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be.
Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am
I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If
you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card
holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your
immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for
more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and
you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems
with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by
the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will
answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to
information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider
refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If
I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing
before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes.
In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you
waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave
the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal
convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa
waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported
without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief
for you.
Can
I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes.
Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to
have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your
consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your
consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the
right to refuse help from your consulate.
What
happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing
is over?
You
could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be
barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk
to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What
should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always
talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers
view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of
your options to you.
What
Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT
NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches,
detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion,
sex or ethnicity.
If
I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop
and search me?
Yes.
Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can
my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or
after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes.
Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the
screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If
I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get
off the plane?
The
pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she
believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision
must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What
If I Am Under 18?
Do
I have to answer questions?
No.
Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing
to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some
states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What
if I am detained?
If
you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you
normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against
you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no
cost.
Do
I have the right to express political views at school?
Public
school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize
at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those
activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You
may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can
my backpack or locker be searched?
School
officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they
reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs
or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property,
but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This
booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if
you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should
also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be
prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG
National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
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Free
Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write
to Mumia:
Mumia
Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI
Mahanoy
301
Morea Road
Frackville,
PA 17932
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August
21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE
MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
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"A
Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship"
book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
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Justice
for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana
state
prisons must end
Take
Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herm\
an-wallace
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WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Write
to Bradley
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
View
the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I
am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage
to Resist
484
Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland,
CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A
Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley
Manning 89289
830
Sabalu Road
Fort
Leavenworth, KS 66027
The
receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends
Bradley
Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This
is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=2071005093\
21891
Courage
to Resist needs your support
Please
donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers
sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning
has
been defending and supporting our Constitution." --Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon
Papers
whistle-blower
Jeff
Paterson
Project
Director, Courage to Resist
First
US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please
donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S.
I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly
becoming
a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to
make
a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please
click here to forward this to a friend who might also be interested in
supporting
GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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The
Battle Is Still On To
FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO
Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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KEVIN
COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable
doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle
Editorial
Monday,
December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death
penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death
row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT
ACTION APPEAL
-
From Amnesty International USA
17
December 2010
Click
here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To
learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For
a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Short
Video About Al-Awda's Work
The
following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's
work
since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown
on
Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l
Al-Awda
Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected
over
the past nine years.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support
Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda,
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial
support
to carry out its work.
To
submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and
follow the simple instructions.
Thank
you for your generosity!
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D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some
of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/
or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NYC
RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
On
Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of
Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fukushima
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima,
Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in
north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the
Japanese government.
This
is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power
experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of
the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens
were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order
to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The
government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and
then
when
the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the
government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It
also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought
to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal
cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which
built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear
plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the
Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the
voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster
and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the
world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new
plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the
information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and
around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production
Of Labor Video Project
P.O.
Box 720027
San
Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For
information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
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1000
year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy
of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans
accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To
see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow
us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The
recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery.
But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts
the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They
came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst
the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that
Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one
man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that
despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm.
"How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon
accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions
the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is
very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means
relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands
on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A
Film By SBS
Distributed
By Journeyman Pictures
April
2012
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Photo
of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD
Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
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Kids
being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate
locations" in
Terror
Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private
prisons,
a
recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack
Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought
Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common
forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing
and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep
News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan
One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For
more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Officers
Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By
ANDY NEWMAN
February
1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This
is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle
Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind
the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and
Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If
you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to
watch this
video
and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as
a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This
speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I
received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the
Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why
We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank
you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks
whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform
on WhiteHouse.gov.
The
We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline
to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar
matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies,
federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system
is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military
Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific
case raised in this petition...
That's
funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY
MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He
broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged,
let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President
to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a
crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama
on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential
remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser.
Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
Release
Bradley Manning
Almost
Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written
by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School
police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear
Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The
2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted
visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are the 99 Percent
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose
between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering
from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and
no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought
to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In
honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM
that began December 30, 1936:
According
to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't
one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story,"
it was
Roosevelt
who saved the day!):
"After
a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard.
But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed
at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone.
For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of
their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
-
Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But
those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at
the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike
was really won!
'With
babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH
CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE
OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU
Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded
by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU
Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland
called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and
file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the
interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For
more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For
further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production
of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC
Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19
November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC
Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police
PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police
pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC
Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy
Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE
BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot
by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy
Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy
Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were
actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE
STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20:
Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy
Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops
make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw
Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy
Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU
TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine
Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear
Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests
at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor
Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy
Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's
Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood,
Occupy Wall Street
By
adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live
arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One
World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When
injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan:
angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted
by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury
Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If
trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate
the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey,
Vice
President,
Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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