Saturday, May 02, 2015

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2015


Police Mass Murder Fact

As of today, May 1, 2015, 387 people have been killed by police since January 1, 2015 (that's a total of 120 days.) That's 3.225 people per day, on average.

http://killedbypolice.net/
 
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CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!
Sign the Petition:

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

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

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

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


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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

B. ARTICLES IN FULL



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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS



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Save the Date - UNAC National Conference, May 8 - 10, 2015


UNAC is the major national antiwar coalition in the U.S. today.  The existence of a United National Antiwar Coalition is vital and we need your financial support to continue our work and to expand.

With U.S. wars today accelerating and expanding globally in various forms – from drone attacks on Yemen and Pakistan, never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, support to neo-fascists in Ukraine, and proliferating Africom forces to threats of war for regime change in Syria – we have an obligation to do whatever is possible to educate the public and to take action to stop the carnage.

The wars abroad are connected to global warming with most wars fought over energy resources with the U.S. war machine as the largest polluter.

At home, we see hugely growing income inequality, a militarized and racist police force, mass incarceration of Blacks and Latinos, and a massive police state apparatus that includes global surveillance and laws to quell dissent.

In spite of the trillions spent by the U.S. corporate war government and its controlled media propaganda machine to keep us in check, the people are fighting back.  We’ve been inspired and strengthened by the hundreds of thousands of new activists taking to the streets of this country to stop police brutality, to build Occupy encampments, to fight for decent wages, to demand full rights for immigrants, to win marriage equality, to end global warming, to demonstrate solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza, and to protest unending U.S. wars.

UNAC has played an active, often leadership role, in all of the antiwar and social justice movements of our time.  While most activists are focused on their particular issues, the most vital role we can play is to connect the issues to their source.  All of the injustices and crimes we protest, stem from the imperialist insatiable drive for expanding profit and control – and the U.S. is the largest imperialist power militarily and economically.  When there should be plenty for all, only the obscenely wealthy benefit while the rest of the 99% struggle just to survive.

Some of our recent major accomplishments:
·       Initiated protest against NATO and 15,000 marched in Chicago in 2012.
·        Called for immediate actions against threats of war and coups directed at Libya, Iran, No. Korea, Africa, Latin America,    Ukraine, and maintaining the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
·        Organized a national tour for Afghan leader Malalai Joya.
·        Sent representatives to international NATO protests and conferences.
·        Serve on the Board of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms to act against Islamophobia , racist attacks on Muslims, and attacks on our civil liberties.
·        Participated in national efforts to organize anti-drone actions.
·        Campaigned to defend victims of government repression who speak out and expose Washington’s crimes, including Rasmea Odeh, Mumia abu Jamal, Lynne Stewart, Chelsea Manning, and the Midwest activists targeted by the FBI.
·        Produced national educational conference calls featuring experts on topics such as U.S. intervention in Africa, the destruction of Libya, the developing wars in Syria, and others.
·        Built an antiwar contingent in the massive New York City Climate Change march and built Climate Change action in other cities around the country.
·        Helped organize protests against Israel’s attack on Gaza
·        Helped organize protests against the murder of Blacks by white police and the militarization of the police forces in the U.S.

UNAC has a history of bringing hundreds of activists together at large national conferences to learn about the issues of the day, to discuss the way forward and to vote on an Action Program for the coming period.

The UNAC conference next May will bring activists from all the movements in motion to cross-fertilize these struggles.  We are particularly dedicated to bringing young activists together to support and learn from each other.  For this, we need your help to offer subsidies to leaders from Ferguson, from the border wars in the southwest, from the Native Americans who are fighting against the pipelines ruining their lands, from the Students for Justice in Palestine, and many others.

Please give generously so that we can continue our work to bring harmony and justice to the peoples of this earth.

You can send a check to UNAC at PO Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054 or click the button below to contribute on-line with your credit or debit card.

 https://www.unacpeace.org/

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Prison refuses Mumia Medical CareDear friend,

Mumia is still in medical danger. He is weak, in the infirmary, and still needs a wheelchair to come out to visits. In a phone call on Monday his voice was hesitant and lacked its usual vibrancy.  
 
Yesterday, the PA Department of Corrections notified Mumia’s Attorney Bret Grote (of the Abolitionist Law Center) that it would:
Not allow Mumia to be examined by his own doctor;
Not allow Mumia to be examined by a endocrinologist (diabetes specialist); And they denied access for the doctor to communicate with prison medical staff to assist or direct Mumia’s care; and the Prison has refused to provide for regular phone calls between Mumia and his doctor. Currently, Mumia can only use the phone every other day for only 15 minutes, as the infirmary does not have phone access.

Mumia is being held in the very infirmary that caused his chronic conditions of eczema and late-onset diabetes to become life-threatening. The medical personnel on site were prevented from ordering tests when he was ill in mid-March, and are under the same prison/corporate restrictions today. One postive note, at this time Mumia is being allowed to monitor his own blood sugar multiple times a day, and he is receiving insulin. Since Mumia was hospitalized in ICU on March 30th with life threatening complications from chronic conditions we have been advocating for his treatment. We have to step up our efforts.

Take Action Now!
Demand that the Department of Corrections permit Mumia to have an examination by his doctor! Click here to call and fax the Prison and State officials and state our demands. 

http://www.prisonradio.org/sites/default/files/letters/pdf/Eyes%20on%20Mumia_1.pdf

Mumia needs his own physician specialists!  Please donate now to help make this possible.  Please got to the web site below and give as generously as you can.

Donate at:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mumia-abu-jamal-needs-medical-care-now

and…
Sign the petition
to help save—and free—Mumia.
Go to:

https://www.change.org/p/john-e-wetzel-pa-secretary-of-corrections-tom-wolf-pa-governor-stop-the-medical-execution-of-mumia-abu-jamal-by-neglect-and-malpractice-3

Also,
We need to keep up the pressure
with phone calls:

Let SCI Mahanoy Superintendent John Kerestes and Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel know we insist that Mumia have medical specialists of his own choosing, and that they have daily access rights to examine and treat him. Also let them know that Mumia’s family needs regular and frequent visitation rights.

SCI Mahanoy
Superintendent John Kerestes
(570) 773-2158

SCI Mahanoy
Chief Health Care Administrator Steinhardt
(570) 773-2158

Christopher Oppman
Director, PA Department of Corrections Health Care Services
(717) 728-5309

John Wetzel
Secretary, PA Department of Corrections
(717) 728-4109

NO EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!
SAVE MUMIA'S LIFE!

Mumia is Innocent! Free Mumia Now!

This message by:
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
20 April 2015

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Victory: Silencing Act SB 508 Struck Down!

Dear friend,

We won! As of yesterday, we defeated Pennsylvania's "Gag Mumia Law", SB 508.  It's hard to rejoice in this victory when Mumia is under medical neglect, riot police are terrorizing Baltimore, and the state violence that killed Freddie Gray and is putting Mumia's life on the line is not unique but ingrained in the U.S.' racist system of policing, surveillance and imprisonment. But we want to take this moment with you to recognize this enormous win, which shut down the Fraternal Order of Police in their tracks and will keep Mumia and all prisoners able to speak to the public.   Email us at info@prisonradio.org and we will send you the order. We must be vigilant the FOP has vowed to go back to the legislature and try to silence Mumia again.

#FreddieGray    #BlackLivesMatter    #BaltimoreUprising
The Silence Mumia Act, which the Pennsylvania General Assembly called the "Revictimization Relief Act", is no more as of right now, as Chief Judge Connor for the Middle District of Pennsylvania federal court held the following:

"The court concludes that the challenged statute betrays several constitutional requirements; the enactment is unlawfully purposed, vaguely executed, and patently overbroad in scope. However well-intentioned its legislative efforts, the General Assembly fell woefully short of the mark. The result is a law that is manifestly unconstitutional, both facially and as applied to plaintiffs. Thus, the court is compelled to grant plaintiffs‟ requests for declaratory relief, declare the Revictimization Relief Act, 18 PA. CONS. STAT. § 11.1304, to be violative of the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and permanently enjoin its enforcement."

Thank you to everyone who made this legal battle possible! Thank you to Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center and Nikki Grant and Ashley Henderson of the Amistad Law Project for shutting down the Fraternal Order of Police. As we continue fighting the current battle to keep Mumia alive, we're calling on everyone to pitch in to Mumia's Medical Fund and spread the word. We have 4 days left to raise $6,000. Once you've given, please ask your networks to do the same.

bit.ly/rise4mumia


The Lawyers, Pam Africa, Keith Cook
Call now to demand freedom & medical care for Mumia:

Often when we call in, prison and state officials have taken their lines off the hook. Know that every action matters, even when they don't pick up. If they don't answer, please leave a voicemail:

John Wetzel, PA Secretary of Corrections: 717-728-4109
Governor Tom Wolf: 717-787-2500
SCI Mahanoy: 570-787-2500
For a full list of addresses and faxes, visit prisonradio.org
Support Prison Radio

$35 to become a member.

$50 to become a member and receive a beautiful tote bag. Or call us to special order a yoga mat bag.

$100 to become a member and receive the DVD "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary."

$300 to become a member and bring one essay to the airwaves.

$1,000 (or $88 per month) will make you a member of our Prison Radio Freedom Circle. Thank you!

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For Immediate Release: March 30, 2015

Attn: News Desk

Prisoners and Advocacy Groups Win Right to a Trial On Constitutionality of the Silencing Act (PA SB508)

This morning, Chief Judge for the federal court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Christopher Conner, will hear the cases Abu-Jamal v. Kane and Prison Legal News v. Kane in a trial that willl determine the constitutionality of PA SB508 "the Silencing Act".  Defendant PA Attorney General Kane will be hard pressed to argue the constitutionality of the Silencing Act, a censorship law targeted at Mumia Abu-Jamal and other currently and formerly incarcerated people.

Defendant Seth Williams was dismissed from the case based on his explicit disavowal of enforcing the act until a court of competent jurisdiction rules on the constitutionality of the statute. His dismissal does not hinder Plaintiffs ability to obtain the relief of invalidating this law, as a favorable ruling on the First Amendment issue against Defendant Kane will achieve the same result. Williams' disavowal of enforcement is a far cry from his political grandstanding in support of this bill's passage in the fall.

The judge has ordered that this trial will include Plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction merged with a trial on the merits, meaning that if we win we will be granted a permanent injunction against the statute, and the statue will be invalidated.

“Silencing prisoners is one more way of dehumanizing them,” said Amistad Law Project Policy Director Nikki Grant. “We need the voices of the marginalized to shed light on injustice.”

The trial is set for this morning March 30 in Harrisburg, PA approximately 5 months since former Governor Corbett signed this ill-fated bill into law.

 The Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law filed the lawsuit on Nov. 10th to stop enforcement of the law. The law firms represent Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio, Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall, Robert L. Holbrook, Donnell Palmer, Anthony Chance, and Human Rights Coalition.

The Silencing Act, also known as 18 P.S. § 11.1304, allows the Attorney General, county District Attorneys, and victims of personal injury crimes to bring a lawsuit in civil court against the person convicted of the personal injury crime to enjoin conduct that “perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime on the victim”. The actions that could prompt a lawsuit include “conduct which causes a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish.”

“This law is unconstitutional,” said David Shapiro of MacArthur Justice Center. “The facts are on our side and the law is on our side. The Silencing Act targets a huge amount of constitutionally protected speech based on who is speaking.”

After a prerecorded commencement speech by journalist and prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was played for graduates at Goddard College in Vermont, the Pennsylvania legislature passed and outgoing Governor Corbett signed into law the Silencing Act on October 21st, 16 days after the commencement speech.

Abu-Jamal has spent 33 years in prison, 29 of which were in solitary confinement on death row after being convicted at a 1982 trial that Amnesty International said “failed to meet minimum international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings.”

Robert L. Holbrook, who is serving a death by incarceration, life without parole, sentence he received as a child, had this to say about the law: “there are people in prison who will stop writing, stop publishing, stop speaking out because of this law.”

Bret Grote       bretgrote@abolitionistlawcenter.org    412-654-9070
Ashley Henderson ashley@amistadlaw.org          215-310-0424
Noelle Hanrahan info@prisonradio.org         415-706-5222
David Shapiro david.shapiro@law.northwestern.edu        312-503-0711

Amistad Law Project is a West Philadelphia-based public interest law center.
Our mission is to fight for the human rights of all people by providing
legal services to people incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s prisons.
www.amistadlaw.org | @amistadlaw | 267-225-5884

The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States.   412-654-9070

Prison Radio has recorded Mumia and other political prisoners for over 25 years, and we are pulling out all the stops to keep these voices on the air.   415-706-5222

Please donate today to amplify prisoners' voices far and wide beyond the bars:
     Support Prison Radio: prisonradio.org/donate
     Defeat SB 508: bit.ly/defendfreespeech

Copyright © Prison Radio
www,prisonradio.org 415-706-5222
Our mailing address is:
Prison Radio PO Box 411074, SF CA 94141

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

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

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Support Prison Radio

$35 is the yearly membership.

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

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

$300 will bring one essay to the airwaves.

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

Luchando por la justicia y la libertad,

Noelle Hanrahan, Director, Prison Radio

PRISON RADIO

P.O. Box 411074 San Francisco, CA 94141

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


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Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson

Lorenzo Speaks Concerning Prosecution's Brief:
JANUARY 1, 2015—The prosecutor has run away from (almost) every issue raised in my PCRA by begging the Court to dismiss everything as “untimely”. When they don’t do this, they suggest that me and my lawyers were “defamatory” towards either my former prosecutor Christopher Abruzzo or Detective Kevin Duffin, in our claims they withheld, misused or hid evidence of my Innocence, in order to secure an unjust conviction in this case. If I charged, a year ago, that about a dozen AGs (attorneys general) were involved in circulating porno via their office computers, people would’ve laughed at me, and seen me as crazy.

But, guess what? During 2014, we learned that this was the truth. How can it be defamatory to speak the truth? Notice the OAG (Office of Attorney General), never said the obvious: That AG Abruzzo didn’t inform the Defense about the relationship between his Motive Witness and his head detective (Victoria Doubs and Det. Duffin); that Det. Duffin doesn’t deny Doubs was his god-sister, and that she lived in his family home, or that he assisted her whenever she got into trouble.

Why not? Because it is true. How can you defame someone who defames himself? Mr. Christopher Abruzzo, Esq., when a member of the higher ranks of the OAG, sent and/or received copious amounts of porno to other attorneys general and beyond. What does this say about his sense of judgment? He thought enough about his behavior to resign from his post in the Governor’s Cabinet. If he thought that his behavior was okay, he’d still be sitting in the Governor’s cabinet, right? The OAG cannot honestly oppose anything we’ve argued, but they try by seeking to get the Court to do their dirty work, how? By denying an Evidentiary Hearing to prove every point we’ve claimed.

The prosecution is trying desperately to avoid dealing with the substance of my claims in Com. v. Lorenzo Johnson. So, they slander my Legal Team and blame them for defaming the good AG’s and Cops involved with this case. They try to do what is undeniable, to deny that they hid evidence from the Defense for years. They blamed me for daring to protest the hidden evidence of their malfeasance and other acts to sabotage the defense. They claim that they had an “Open File” policy with my trial counsel. But “Open File” is more than letting an attorney read something in their office. If it’s a search for the truth it must include what is turned over to the attorney, for how do we really know what was shown to her?

They say it is inconceivable that an attorney would read a file, beginning on page nine (9), and not ask for the preceding eight (8) pages. Yet, it is conceivable if trial counsel was ineffective for not demanding the record of the first eight pages. Pages that identify the State’s only witness as a “SUSPECT” in the murder for which her client was charged! How could such an attorney fail to recognize the relevance of such an issue, barring their sheer Ineffectiveness and frankly, Incompetence.

By seeking to avoid an evidentiary hearing, the prosecution seeks to avoid evidence of their wrongdoing being made plain, for all to see. If they believe I’m wrong, why not prove it? They can’t. So they shout I filed my appeal untimely, as if there can ever justly be a rule that precludes an innocent from proving his innocence! Not to mention the fact that the prosecution has failed to even mention the positive finger prints that ay my trial they said none existed. Don’t try to hide it with a lame argument about time. When isn’t there a time for truth? The prosecution should be ashamed of itself for taking this road. It is unworthy of an office that claims to seek justice.

After the trial verdict The Patriot-News (March 18, 1997) reported, “Deputy Attorney General Christopher Abruzzo admitted there were some serious concerns about the strength of the evidence against Johnson and praised the jury for doing a thorough job.” I guess he forgot to mention all of the evidence he left out to show Innocence.

Now, more than ever, Lorenzo Johnson needs your support.
Publicize his case; bring it to your friends, clubs, religious
and social organizations. 


SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION

http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/sign-the-petition.html

CONTRIBUTE TO LORENZO'S CAMPAIGN FOR FREEDOM!
http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/how-can-i-help.html


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



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Click HERE to view in browser
http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/freepinkney-1-28-15/
       
Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MESSAGE FROM REV. PINKNEY

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

New Court Date on 4 Motions for Rev. Pinkney 

TUES, FEB. 24 1pm Berrien County Court 

Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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COURAGE TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org/

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

November 24, 2014 by the Chelsea Manning Support Network

Secretary of the Army John McHugh
President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning’s clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense.
Please write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks’ whistle-blower former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning’s release from military prison.
It is important that each of these authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in Manning’s outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this stage.
Take action TODAY – Write letters supporting Chelsea’s clemency petition to the following DoD authorities:
Secretary of the Army John McHugh
101 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-0101
The Judge Advocate General
2200 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-2200
Army Clemency and Parole Board
251 18th St, Suite 385
Arlington, VA 22202-3532
Directorate of Inmate Administration
Attn: Boards Branch
U.S. Disciplinary Barracks
1301 N. Warehouse Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304
Suggestions for letters send to DoD officials:
  • The letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and especially why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning’s sentence is reduced.  The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be unlikely to help
  • A suggested message: “Chelsea Manning has been punished enough for violating military regulations in the course of being true to her conscience.  I urge you to use your authorityto reduce Pvt. Manning’s sentence to time served.”  Beyond that general message, feel free to personalize the details as to why you believe Chelsea deserves clemency.
  • Consider composing your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself (here are templates and some tips for doing that).
  • A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above
This clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning’s upcoming appeal before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning’s new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the prosecution’s—and the trial judge’s—misconduct during last year’s trial at Ft. Meade, Maryland.
Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea’s legal fees at this critical stage!



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

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 B. ARTICLES IN FULL




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1) Crowds Scatter as Baltimore Curfew Takes Hold
"Near the burned-out CVS, Robert Wilson, a college student who went to high school in Baltimore, said: 'With the riots, we’re not trying to act like animals or thugs. We’re just angry at the surroundings, like this is all that is given to us, and we’re tired of this, like nobody wants to wake up and see broken-down buildings. They take away the community centers, they take away our fathers, and now we have traffic lights that don’t work, we have houses that are crumbling, falling down.'
Mr. Wilson said he had seen someone on television say, 'This doesn’t feel like America.'
'And I’m like, ‘This is America!’ ' he said. ‘They just don’t want you to know!’ ”
By




2) Questioning of Garner Protesters in New York Renews Concerns About Police Practices
By





3) In Baltimore, We’re All Freddie Gray
By D. WATKINS





4) Violence in Baltimore
There is also the quote often attributed to Zora Neale Hurston: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
By Charles M. Blow




5) Prosecutor Cites ‘Probable Cause’ for Manslaughter Charges in Freddie Gray Case
By and




6)  Father Assaulted By Cop as His Young Children Watch
In the video, it appears as though the man is simply trying to get an explanation for why the officer is doing this. "With 387 people killed by police since the first of the year, can you really blame someone for being terrified that their loved one may be the next hashtag?"
By Cassandra Fairbanks
April 30, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/father-assaulted-cop-his-young-children-watch?akid=13058.229473.eBZijD&rd=1&src=newsletter1035677&t=13







7) Prosecutors Charge 6 Baltimore Officers in Freddie Gray Death
By and




8) Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Struggles With Suicides Among Its Young
By





9) Clashes in Philadelphia as Freddie Gray Protest Neared Highway
By JON HURDLE and DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/clashes-in-philadelphia-as-freddie-gray-protest-neared-highway.html?ref=us




10) American Psychological Association Bolstered C.I.A. Torture Program, Report Says
By




11) Mayor de Blasio Defends Police Response to Freddie Gray Protests in New York
By and
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/nyregion/new-york-officials-defend-aggressive-response-to-freddie-gray-protests.html?ref=nyregion




12) Baltimore Prosecutor Faces National History of Police Acquittals
By




13) Baltimore Braces for More Protests Over Freddie Gray Death
By




14) Hundreds Protest in Manhattan Against Police Brutality and Income Inequality
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1) Crowds Scatter as Baltimore Curfew Takes Hold
"Near the burned-out CVS, Robert Wilson, a college student who went to high school in Baltimore, said: 'With the riots, we’re not trying to act like animals or thugs. We’re just angry at the surroundings, like this is all that is given to us, and we’re tired of this, like nobody wants to wake up and see broken-down buildings. They take away the community centers, they take away our fathers, and now we have traffic lights that don’t work, we have houses that are crumbling, falling down.'
Mr. Wilson said he had seen someone on television say, 'This doesn’t feel like America.'
'And I’m like, ‘This is America!’ ' he said. ‘They just don’t want you to know!’ ”
By

BALTIMORE — Armored vehicles lined this battered city’s main thoroughfares and thousands of law enforcement officers and National Guard troops worked to maintain order and enforce a citywide curfew Tuesday night, amid scattered reports of unrest after a day of largely peaceful protests.

As the curfew went into effect at 10 p.m., hundreds of people remained in the streets near the intersection of Pennsylvania and West North Avenues in blighted West Baltimore, where a CVS drugstore had been looted and burned during Monday night’s riots, after the funeral for Freddie Gray, who died after suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody this month. There were some reports of arrests, and police fired pepper-spray balls to disperse crowds, who had earlier stood their ground despite entreaties from religious leaders and community activists.

Shortly before midnight, Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said, “The curfew is in fact working.”He added that 10 people were arrested after it went into effect. “Citizens are safe. The city is stable,” he said. “We hope to maintain it that way.”

National Guard soldiers were set to be deployed in a two- or three-block radius of a northwest Baltimore neighborhood, Mr. Batts said, “to sustain that area, to stabilize it and make sure that everything is O.K.”

Earlier Tuesday night, nearly 1,000 people gathered at the Empowerment Temple A.M.E. Church, where about 500 religious leaders of different faiths called for healing. Members of the audience spoke about a litany of problems plaguing the city and called for better policing, policies to create jobs, and better schools.

But out in the streets, there were intermittent clashes with police, as some threw bottles at a line of officers behind riot shields.

The tense mood Tuesday night was a stark contrast to the almost upbeat feeling earlier in the day, as hundreds of people of all ages and races — many of them toting brooms and trash bags — worked to clear the neighborhood of rocks and debris.

In the late afternoon, peaceful demonstrators marched through the streets, chanting, “All night, all day, we’re gonna fight for Freddie Gray!”

“It’s sad, this don’t make no sense,” said Clarence Cobb, 48, one of many neighborhood residents who, describing themselves as brokenhearted, came out to survey the wreckage and clean up. “It comes to a point where you just got to take pride in your own neighborhood. This makes us look real bad as a city.”As Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake tried to assess the damage from the rioting, there was intense debate over whether the mayor had waited too long to ask the governor to send in the National Guard — and whether the city police, who confessed to being outnumbered and outflanked a day earlier, were underprepared.

The authorities said that 15 buildings and 144 cars had been set on fire during Monday night’s chaos, which began in Northwest Baltimore’s Mondawmin neighborhood and spread to other pockets of the city after morning funeral services for Mr. Gray, who was eulogized with soaring gospel music and impassioned calls for justice and peace. The police made 235 arrests. Nineteen police officers were injured, but by Tuesday, all had been treated and released.

With schools closed and camouflage-clad National Guard members patrolling the streets, Baltimore struggled to find some sense of normalcy. The Baltimore Orioles, forced by the unrest to postpone games Monday and Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox, announced that the teams would play Wednesday at Camden Yards — but without fans, because the ballpark would be closed to the public.

In Washington, President Obama, making his first public remarks on the crisis here, denounced the rioters as “criminals and thugs” and said there was “no excuse” for the violence. He sought to distinguish it from the largely peaceful demonstrations that have unfolded since Mr. Gray died on April 19. Speaking in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama said that he understood people “want answers,” and that the Justice Department was working with local law enforcement to find out what happened to Mr. Gray.

But, he said, “when individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting, they’re not making a statement — they’re stealing. When they burn down a building, they’re committing arson.”

The police had begun gearing up for the violence Monday afternoon after word spread across social media of a call for high school students to “purge” — an apparent reference to the 2013 action horror movie “The Purge,” whose plot revolves around one night a year when, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., crime is legal and police, fire and medical emergency services are unavailable.

The police said Tuesday that what they expected to be a demonstration by high school students had quickly evolved; of the 235 arrests, they said, just 31 were juveniles. They also said that the number of young people had swelled because the area is a hub for eight schools, and students had emerged from buses.

“When we deployed our officers yesterday, we were deploying for a high school event,” Capt. J. Eric Kowalcyzk, the Baltimore police spokesman, told reporters here. “I don’t think there’s anyone that would expect us to deploy with automatic weapons and armored vehicles for 13-, 14- and 15-year olds.”

Most Baltimore officials, including Mayor Rawlings-Blake, had convened at the New Shiloh Baptist Church for Mr. Gray’s funeral, which let out shortly before the violence began. The mayor, saying the city had reacted “very swiftly,” defended herself.

“There’s always going to be armchair quarterbacks,” she said Tuesday, adding that she faced a “very delicate balancing act” and had to be careful about “not escalating and increasing the problem” by creating a militarized atmosphere that could further inflame tensions. That was the case in Ferguson, Mo., after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in August.

In death, Mr. Gray has taken his place along with Mr. Brown as a national symbol of police mistreatment of black men. His death set off a string of largely peaceful protests, although a march downtown did lead to scattered violence on Saturday night. But it renewed long-simmering tensions between residents of this majority black city and a police force with a history of aggressive, sometimes brutal, behavior.

Six Baltimore officers have been suspended with pay, and the police are investigating Mr. Gray’s death. Mr. Batts, the police commissioner, has said the results of the inquiry will be presented on Friday to the city prosecutor, who will determine whether to bring charges.

Even as 2,000 National Guard troops and police from multiple states came in to secure the streets, more protests were planned; college students calling themselves City Bloc said they would march to City Hall on Wednesday “to make young people’s voices heard over the many people characterizing the riots as the only way people are responding to the death of Freddie Gray.”

The crisis in Baltimore is as much a test for Mr. Hogan, a Republican whose election in this heavily Democratic state in November was a surprise, as for Ms. Rawlings-Blake, and there appeared to be some tension between them. The governor said as early as Saturday that he was prepared to declare a state of emergency, allowing him to call in the National Guard, when a march through downtown set off scattered nighttime violence.But he had to wait for the mayor to ask; she did so at about 6 p.m. Monday, roughly two hours after the rioting began.

“You could say: ‘Should she have called us a couple of hours earlier? Should we have made the call without her?’ ” the governor said on Tuesday. “But it wasn’t an issue on Saturday.”

Some said the police had exacerbated tensions by sending 200 to 300 officers to the Mondawmin Mall as school let out. “Having the cops showing up in riot gear just inflamed the situation,” said Melech Thomas, 27, a minister who works with youth in West Baltimore.

Policing experts said Ms. Rawlings-Blake was walking a delicate line, and some said they would much rather see a city take Baltimore’s cautious approach than react with the kind of militarized police presence used by Ferguson. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a research group based in Washington, said, “It’s better to go in low key and build up if necessary.”

Norman H. Stamper, the Seattle police chief who oversaw a harsh response to vandalism and demonstrations when the World Trade Organization met in that city in 1999, and who later disavowed those tactics, agreed.

“There is a sense of damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” he said. “I’m not saying Baltimore did everything right, but generally, when you get criticized for exercising restraint, that’s preferable to sort of a wanton, aggressive response.”

Throughout Tuesday, state troopers in riot gear and National Guards members patrolled the Inner Harbor tourist district and around downtown Baltimore hotels.

Three hundred law enforcement officers from states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as the District of Columbia, arrived by nightfall. Governor Hogan said he had been in touch with the state’s insurance commissioner and the Small Business Administration about financial assistance to business owners who incurred losses.

As the city seeks to rebuild, some in Baltimore say the problems here run much deeper than Mr. Gray’s death and the conduct of the police.

Near the burned-out CVS, Robert Wilson, a college student who went to high school in Baltimore, said: “With the riots, we’re not trying to act like animals or thugs. We’re just angry at the surroundings, like this is all that is given to us, and we’re tired of this, like nobody wants to wake up and see broken-down buildings. They take away the community centers, they take away our fathers, and now we have traffic lights that don’t work, we have houses that are crumbling, falling down.”

Mr. Wilson said he had seen someone on television say, “This doesn’t feel like America.”

“And I’m like, ‘This is America!’ ” he said. “ ‘They just don’t want you to know!’ ”

Reporting was contributed by Alan Blinder, Nikita Stewart, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Ron Nixon from Baltimore, and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York.



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2) Questioning of Garner Protesters in New York Renews Concerns About Police Practices
By

Last December, as people arrested during protests related to the death of Eric Garner waited to be released from Police Headquarters in Manhattan, an officer removed a 28-year-old woman from a holding cell there.

The woman, Leighann Starkey, a doctoral student who lives in Harlem, said recently that she was escorted to a separate area where she was asked by two detectives how she knew about the demonstrations, what social media she used to keep track of them and whether she was part of a protest group. One detective, she said, asked whether she had ties to terrorists.

Another protester held that night, Christina Wilkerson, said officers told her she would not be released until she had been questioned; she stayed in custody for about 12 hours. Ms. Wilkerson, a social worker who lives in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, added that detectives asked who employed her, whether colleagues had attended the demonstrations and who had organized them.

“It started to feel like an interrogation,” Ms. Wilkerson, 30, said. “I wondered whether they would continue monitoring me.”

The death of Mr. Garner during an attempted arrest last summer fueled protests and a national debate over police practices. And after a grand jury on Staten Island decided in December not to issue criminal charges against the police officer who used a chokehold on him, thousands of demonstrators took over major streets, bridges and highways in New York City, but there were few serious clashes with the police.

The post-arrest questioning of Ms. Starkey, Ms. Wilkerson and at least nine others during the Garner protests, which has not been previously reported, has renewed long-running concerns among civil liberties activists about police practices that may have a chilling effect on activities protected by the First Amendment, like protest and free speech.

The issue is of particular interest in New York City, where the 1985 settlement of a federal court case, Handschu v. Special Services Division, resulted in a consent decree that defined how the city’s police may investigate political activity.

In 2003, the judge overseeing the Handschu settlement rebuked the Police Department when it emerged that Intelligence Division detectives had been using a document called the Demonstration Debriefing Form to record where arrested antiwar protesters went to school, their membership in organizations and their involvement in past protests. Police officials maintained that the questioning had been lawful but said that the department had stopped using the form and had destroyed a database derived from it.

Some civil liberties lawyers say the recent questioning appeared to be substantially similar to the questioning in 2003, with detectives in both instances focusing on political involvement rather than criminal behavior.

“When the police investigate political affiliations and political activities, that poses a serious threat to First Amendment rights,” the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Christopher Dunn, said. “The N.Y.P.D. should stop this immediately.”

Lawrence Byrne, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, said the questioning, which did not involve the Intelligence Division, had been conducted in accordance with the consent decree and department rules.

He added that the questioning began in late November, during protests connected to events in Ferguson, Mo., after a demonstrator in Times Square splattered Police Commissioner William J. Bratton with fake blood and detectives began seeing threats against officers on social media.

“The Detective Bureau began a process of interviewing defendants arrested during the protests,” Mr. Byrne said, “in an attempt to obtain information about the specific acts of violence, vandalism and threats directed at police officers, as well as the general threat environment relating to such acts.”

Police departments across the country have long sought to quietly gather information about those who they believe may be dangerous or disruptive, but federal court settlements in the 1970s and 1980s in cities like New York, Chicago and Memphis restricted some efforts after lawsuits argued that cataloging lawful behavior and subjecting people to special scrutiny because of political or religious activity violated the Constitution and deterred free speech and association.

Martin R. Stolar, a member of the National Lawyers Guild who was among those who filed the Handschu case in Federal District Court in Manhattan in 1971, said that he believed the questioning of the Garner protesters violated the 1985 consent decree. Lawyers in the case were discussing how to proceed, Mr. Stolar said.

“The police are saying that if you’re going to protest, we’re going to ask about your associations, your reason for being at the protest, your plans for future protests,” he said. “All of that is an infringement of the right to be free from government interference in your political activities.”It is not uncommon for detectives to ask people who have been arrested about a specific investigation or about continuing criminal activity in their neighborhood. But Eugene O’Donnell, a lawyer and a former police officer who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said the questions described by the protesters seemed “to go beyond ordinary criminal debriefing or ordinary arrest processing” and raised concerns about why the Police Department was gathering information from protesters and how it would be used.

For years, such issues have been discussed within the context of the Handschu case, which has sometimes reflected changing perceptions of how to address issues of safety and surveillance.

The lawsuit asserted that the Police Department’s Special Services Division, or Red Squad, had violated the rights of political activists in the 1960s and 1970s by using wiretaps, undercover officers and provocateurs to monitor and disrupt their actions. The consent decree created guidelines that allowed the investigation of political groups only when there was specific information about criminal activity.

In 2003, after police officials argued that detectives needed greater latitude to investigate terrorism, Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan, as overseer of the Handschu settlement, relaxed the guidelines.

Soon afterward, the New York Civil Liberties Union learned that the debriefing form had been used to question antiwar protesters. Lawyers later said the detectives also questioned protesters about topics like their political leanings and their views on Israel and Palestine. The questioning revealed “an N.Y.P.D. in some need of discipline,” wrote Judge Haight, who modified the consent decree to ensure that lawyers could seek to hold the city in contempt of court if the police violated people’s rights.

Some of those questioned in December said they were disturbed that detectives were gathering information related to a movement protesting actions by police officers.

Frank Roberts, who teaches at New York University, said he was asked what he was doing when he was arrested and whether he had attended meetings with other protesters. An elementary school teacher, Sherlly Pierre, said she was asked why she had participated in the demonstrations. A Baptist minister, Willa Rose Johnson, said she was asked about past protests. Benjamin Perry, a student at the Union Theological Seminary, said detectives asked whether classmates had attended demonstrations. Another seminary student, Shawn Torres, said detectives asked who was in charge of a student listserv discussing the protests and how to receive email messages from it.

Ms. Pierre, 28, from Harlem, said detectives also asked if she had helped organize the Dec. 3 protests and wanted to know when and where the next demonstrations would take place.

“What we were being asked had nothing to do with what we were being charged with,” she said. “It was like they were trying to find out where their problem was coming from so they could stifle it.”




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3) In Baltimore, We’re All Freddie Gray
By D. WATKINS

BALTIMORE — AT the moment, what’s going on in Baltimore seems to be all about Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who was viciously attacked by police officers on April 12 more or less because he looked at them. They subdued him; his spine was nearly severed, his voice box was smashed and he was hauled off in a police van, even after he requested medical attention multiple times. He died a week later as result.

But it’s not only about Freddie Gray. Like him, I grew up in Baltimore, and I and everyone I know have similar stories, even if they happened to end a little differently. To us, the Baltimore Police Department is a group of terrorists, funded by our tax dollars, who beat on people in our community daily, almost never having to explain or pay for their actions. It’s gotten to the point that we don’t call cops unless we need a police report for an insurance claim.

And it’s about more than just the cops. We’ve watched as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, in conjunction with Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, spent over a week investigating what appears to be an open-and-shut case. I’d like to think that if I broke a person’s neck for no reason, I’d be charged in minutes. But the system — even when it’s run by a black mayor and a black commissioner, even when a majority of the City Council is black — protects the police, no matter how blatant and brutal they are.

I can easily skip right past the cases of innocent victims of police brutality who received a combined amount of nearly $6 million in settlements from the city over the last three years, or Tyrone West, Anthony Anderson, Freddie Gray and the more than 100 people killed by local police officers in the last decade, and dive straight into some of the random experiences I’ve had with cops because I’m black in Baltimore.

When I was 10, a group of thugs kicked in the door to my home, knocking it off the hinges, looking for drugs. They held my family and me at gunpoint for hours while they tore our house apart. When they left my mom called the cops; they arrived two hours later, treating us as if we were the crooks and complaining about writing the police reports.

When I was 12 I would play full-court basketball at Ellwood Park, on the city’s east side. One day the cops came through, saying they were looking for a robbery suspect. Suddenly about six officers entered the court from all four directions and made everyone lie on the ground, face down. A friend of mine, whom we called Fat Kevin, asked, “Why y’all treatin’ us like animals?” One of the cops shouted, “Because you are worthless!” though he also used a much more vulgar, and around here a much more common, term.

Then, when I was 14, a cop clothes-lined a kid named Rick off a moped. Rick hopped up, yelling, “What did I do?” and was instantly clubbed down by the cop and his partner. Rick’s face was badly bruised for weeks.

I can throw in stories from the years in between, or the years after, ranging from pre-K to graduate school. And whether they were marching, or torching a cop car, or cleaning up Tuesday morning, black Baltimoreans have almost all had similar stories.

The police officers in Baltimore, as in many places in the country with dense black populations, are out of control, have been out of control. One of the major reasons is that many Baltimore police officers don’t live in Baltimore City; some don’t even live in Maryland. Many don’t know or care about the citizens of the communities they police, which is why they can come in, beat us and kill us without a sign of grief or empathy.Many other Baltimoreans feel the same way, which is why a diverse collection of protesters has taken to the streets every day since Freddie Gray’s death on April 19.

Most of the protests were peaceful. The first acts of violence didn’t occur until after a nonviolent, if agitated, protest Saturday night at City Hall. From there, a group of protesters, including myself, marched to Camden Yards, where the Orioles were playing the Boston Red Sox. As we passed a strip of bars, a group of white baseball fans, wearing both Baltimore and Boston gear, were standing outside yelling, “We don’t care! We don’t care!” Some called us monkeys and apes. A fight broke out, and people were hurt.

After that, it didn’t take much. Some people might ask, “Why Baltimore?” But the real question is, “Why did it take so long?”

The young uprisers of Baltimore have been paying attention to the peaceful protests in Sanford, Fla., Ferguson, Mo., and New York, only to be let down by the end result, over and over again.

We are all starting to believe that holding hands, following pastors and peaceful protests are pointless. The only option is to rise up, and force Mayor Rawlings-Blake to make what should be an easy choice: Stop protecting the livelihoods of the cops who killed Freddie Gray, or watch Baltimore burn to the ground.

D. Watkins is the author of the forthcoming books “The Beastside,” an essay collection, and “Cook Up,” a memoir.


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4) Violence in Baltimore
There is also the quote often attributed to Zora Neale Hurston: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
By Charles M. Blow

This week, Baltimore was engulfed in violent revolt as citizens took to the street in the wake of the mysterious and disturbing death of Freddie Gray after he’d been taken into police custody.

Projectiles were thrown. Stores were looted and some set ablaze. Police officers were injured.

It was ugly.

And in that moment, America was again forced to turn its face toward its forsaken and ask tough questions and attempt to answer a few.

Even Hillary Clinton stepped into the fray Wednesday, saying:

“We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America. There is something profoundly wrong when African-American men are still far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, and sentenced to longer prison terms than are meted out to their white counterparts.”This was an aggressive speech by Clinton and a major departure from her 2008 run, when, after an embarrassing loss to Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses, she went on the attack in New Hampshire, with ABC News reporting it this way:

“While the senator was vague, her campaign pointed out to ABC News examples of Obama’s liberal positions, including his 2004 statement to abolish mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes.”

On Tuesday, the day before his wife’s speech, Bill Clinton had weighed in. As the Guardian reported:

“Former U.S. president Bill Clinton has called for an end to mass incarceration, admitting that changes in penal policy that happened largely under his watch put ‘too many people in prison and for too long’ and ‘overshot the mark.’”

The Guardian goes on to explain:

“In 1994 Clinton championed a crime bill that laid down several of the foundations of the country’s current mass incarceration malaise. Vowing to be ‘tough on crime’ — a quality that had previously been more closely associated with the Republicans and which Clinton adopted under his ‘triangulation’ ploy — he created incentives to individual states to build more prisons, to put more people behind bars and to keep them there for longer. His also presided over the introduction of a federal three-strikes law that brought in long sentences for habitual offenders.”

Hillary Clinton’s speech on Wednesday was indeed a remarkable and audacious one for the candidate, and went far further than many of her Republican rivals would dare to go (although there is growing bipartisan consensus around prison reform), but the unacknowledged and unexplained shift in the middle of a heated moment could quite reasonably raise doubts of sincerity or commitment to execution.
The black community in America has been betrayed by Democrats and Republicans alike — it has been betrayed by America itself. Therefore, it can be hard to accept at face value any promises made or policies articulated. History demonstrates that too many forked tongues have delivered too many betrayed covenants.

As James Baldwin put it in his essay “Journey to Atlanta”:

“Of all Americans, Negroes distrust politicians most, or more accurately, they have been best trained to expect nothing from them; more than other Americans, they are always aware of the enormous gap between election promises and their daily lives.”

Baldwin continued:

“It is true that the promises excite them, but this is not because they are taken as proof of good intentions. They are the proof of something more concrete than intentions: that the Negro situation is not static, that changes have occurred, and are occurring and will occur — this, in spite of the daily, dead-end monotony. It is this daily, dead-end monotony, though, as well as the wise desire not to be betrayed by too much hoping, which causes them to look on politicians with such an extraordinarily disenchanted eye.”

It is this disenchantment, as well as the steady beat of black bodies falling, the constant murmur of black pain and the incessant sting of black subjugation that contributed to the conflagration of rage this week in Baltimore.

You could easily argue that that rage was misdirected, that most of the harm done was to the social fabric and the civil and economic interests in the very neighborhoods that most lack them. You would be right.

But misdirected rage is not necessarily illegitimate rage.

Some might even contextualize the idea of misdirection.

The activist Deray McKesson argued this week about the violence that erupted in Baltimore: “I don’t have to condone it to understand it.”

Indeed, The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates argued quite convincingly in November that violent revolt has often been the catalyst for change in this country and that nonviolence, at least in part, draws its power from the untenable alternative of violence.None of this promotes violence as a tactic, but rather is a fuller understanding of the contradictions of America’s current, incessant appeals for peace.

We can’t roundly condemn violent revolt now while ignoring the violent revolts that have littered this country’s history.

We can’t rush to label violent protesters as “thugs” while reserving judgment about the violence of police killings until a full investigation has been completed and all the facts are in.

We can’t condemn explosions of frustration born of generations of marginalization and oppression while paying only passing glances to similar explosions of frustration over the inanity of a sports team’s victory or loss or a gathering for a pumpkin festival.

Nonviolence, as a strategy, hinges on faith: It is a faith in ultimate moral rectitude and the perfectibility of systems of power.

But that faith can be hard to find in communities that see systems of power in which they feel they have no stake and an absence of moral courage on the part of the powerful to expand the franchise.

It has been my experience that people who feel no investment in systems of power — no belief that they have access to that power and that that power will treat them fairly — are the ones most likely to attack those systems with whatever power they think they have.

The time that any population will silently endure suffering is term-limited and the end of that term is unpredictable, often set by a moment of trauma that pushes a simmering discontent over into civil disobedience.

And, in those moments, America feigns shock and disbelief. Where did this anger come from? How can we quickly restore calm? How do we instantly start to heal?

That is because America likes to hide its sins. That is because it wants its disaffected, dispossessed and disenfranchised to use the door under the steps. That is because America sees its underclass as some sort of infinity sponge: capable of quietly absorbing disadvantage, neglect and oppression forever for the greater good of superficial calm and illusory order. And expected to do so.

No one of good conscience and sound judgment desires violence or would ever advocate for it. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it, “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.”

But King is not the only person worthy of quoting here. There is also the quote often attributed to Zora Neale Hurston: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”


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5) Prosecutor Cites ‘Probable Cause’ for Manslaughter Charges in Freddie Gray Case
By and

BALTIMORE — The state attorney of Baltimore, in a unexpected announcement, said Friday that she had probable cause to file charges against the police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, who died after sustaining a spinal cord injury while in police custody.

In a news conference Friday, Ms. Mosby said that the death of Mr. Gray had been ruled a homicide and the police had been negligent in Mr. Gray’s death.

The death, Ms. Mosby said, is believed to be the result of a fatal injury to Mr. Gray while he was riding in the van without a seat belt.

The announcement came a day after the Police Department completed its initial investigation into Mr. Gray’s death and also handed its findings to Ms Mosby’s office.

The Police Department completed its initial investigation into Mr. Gray’s death and also handed its findings to Ms Mosby’s office, on Thursday. Prosecutors added the police work to their own investigation, and Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said his department will now take direction from them about what leads to pursue.

Alan Blinder reported from Baltimore, and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York.


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6)  Father Assaulted By Cop as His Young Children Watch
In the video, it appears as though the man is simply trying to get an explanation for why the officer is doing this. "With 387 people killed by police since the first of the year, can you really blame someone for being terrified that their loved one may be the next hashtag?"
By Cassandra Fairbanks
April 30, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/father-assaulted-cop-his-young-children-watch?akid=13058.229473.eBZijD&rd=1&src=newsletter1035677&t=13



Broward County, FL–  A video uploaded to Facebook on Tuesday by a user named Alfreda Graham captured a heartbreaking scene as three young children cried out in horror while their father screamed in agony at the hands of a Plantation Police Officer.
“Your daddy is going to jail, you need to get back in your car please,” he tells the man’s frightened young daughter.
The officer claimed that the man had driven by and hit him, but the man’s irate wife adamantly insists that the officer deliberately hit their vehicle with his hands.
“The officer claims that he hit him with his car he snatched him from his car and rough handled him saying that he was resisting, you be the judge.” Graham posted.
The woman is in hysterics as she films the officer who is saying that her husband is resisting arrest. In the video, it appears as though he is simply trying to get an explanation for why the officer is doing this.

Young children, aged 9, 7 and 3 cry and scream for their dad as the officer twists his wrists behind his back.

The man’s hands are already behind him and in the officer’s grasp as the officer continues to insist he put them behind his back, and we hear the usual “stop resisting” repeatedly.

After her husband is placed in the police vehicle and more backup arrives, the officers begin telling her to stop filming to comfort her children, who are understandably upset after witnessing an officer assault their father. The woman is screaming at the officers that her husband is not going to end up dead like in the cases she has seen in the news, and the genuine fear is evident in her voice. The children are heard screaming in panic about how much they love their daddy.
“Every 28 hours one person, no, I don’t trust these people!” The woman tells her husband after the police bring her over to him in the cop car after asking him to help calm her down.
With 387 people killed by police since the first of the year, can you really blame someone for being terrified that their loved one may be the next hashtag?

We have reached out to the department for a comment and have not yet received a response.




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7) Prosecutors Charge 6 Baltimore Officers in Freddie Gray Death
By and

BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s chief prosecutor charged six police officers on Friday with crimes including murder and manslaughter in the arrest and fatal injury of Freddie Gray, a striking and surprisingly swift turn in a case that has drawn national attention to police conduct.

The state’s attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby, filed the charges almost as soon as she received a medical examiner’s report Friday that ruled Mr. Gray’s death a homicide, and a day after the police concluded their initial investigation and handed her their findings. Officials had cautioned that it could take considerable time for her office to complete its own investigation and decide whether to prosecute.

In a city rocked by unrest this week, and now under curfew and patrolled by National Guard troops, Ms. Mosby’s announcement on the steps of the War Memorial downtown drew cheers from the assembled crowd, while a cordon of officers in riot gear looked on stonily. The death of Mr. Gray brought to a boil long-simmering tensions between the police and poor communities in this majority-black city, culminating in rioting Monday in which cars and buildings were set on fire, stores were looted, more than 200 people were arrested and dozens of officers were injured.

Ms. Mosby said that Mr. Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury on April 12 while being transported in a police van — and not earlier, while being arrested — and pointed to the failure of the police to put a seatbelt on him as a crucial factor. “Mr. Gray suffered a critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside the BPD wagon,” she said, referring to the police van.

Despite repeated stops to check on his condition, the van driver and other officers never belted him in, she said, at times leaving him facedown on the van floor with his hands behind him.

Mr. Gray’s condition deteriorated, she said, as officers repeatedly ignored his pleas for medical attention and ignored obvious signs that he was in distress. At one point, she said, when an officer attempted to check on him, he was completely unresponsive — yet no action was taken. He died of his injuries a week later.The prosecutor also said that the officers who initially arrested Mr. Gray had done so illegally, without probable cause. Officers charged him with possession of a switchblade, but Ms. Mosby said, “The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law.”

Ms. Mosby did not allege that the van driver, Officer Caesar R. Goodson, Jr., intentionally gave Mr. Gray a “rough ride,” to slam him against the metal walls of the van. But Officer Goodson was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, assault and misconduct in office.

Lt. Brian W. Rice was charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment. Officer William G. Porter and Sgt. Alicia D. White were each charged with manslaughter, assault and misconduct in office. Officers Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller were charged with assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment.

As Ms. Mosby finished reading her dramatic announcement, the news began to ripple through a crowd of African-American residents and activists who had pooled around her, mingling with reporters. Edward Jenkins, 44, a motivational speaker and musician who goes by the name Voyce, approached and could hardly contain his surprise when he was told of the charges. “Are you serious?” he said.

Mr. Jenkins, a Baltimore resident who grew up in Mr. Gray’s neighborhood, said he thought the announcement might put a damper on further unrest. “I think this will take some of the nervousness off of it, but they’ll still want a guilty verdict,” he said.

He said he hoped this was the beginning of a real effort to address problems of police violence against African-Americans. “It means that we’re absolutely getting a start on justice,” he said. “Maybe now other states and other places can see the start of a change.”

The Baltimore chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, the officers’ union, defended the officers’ conduct, and called on Ms. Mosby to remove herself from the case and hand it over to a special prosecutor — an idea she dismissed out of hand.

“As tragic as this situation is, none of the officers involved are responsible for the death of Mr. Gray,” Gene Ryan, president of the union chapter, wrote in an open letter to the state’s attorney.

Mr. Ryan argued that Ms. Mosby had conflicts of interest, including the fact that she has been supported politically by William H. Murphy Jr., the lawyer for Mr. Gray’s family. He also noted that her husband is a city councilman, and said his “political future will be directly impacted, for better or worse, by the outcome of your investigation.”Mr. Gray started his fateful ride lying on the floor of the police van, Ms. Mosby said, and a short time later, Officer Goodson “proceeded to the back of the wagon in order to observe Mr. Gray,” though she did not say why, and “at no point did he seek, nor did he render, any medical help for Mr. Gray.”

A few blocks later, he called a dispatcher to say that he needed help checking on his prisoner. Another officer arrived, and he and Officer Goodson once again, the back of the van was opened.

“Mr. Gray at that time said that he needed help and indicated that he could not breathe,” and asked twice for a medic, she said. And while the officers helped him onto the bench in the back of the van, they still did not belt him in.

While they were there, she said, a call went out for a van to pick up and transport another person who had been arrested. “Despite Mr. Gray’s obvious and recognized need for assistance,” Ms. Mosby said, Officer Goodson answered that call, an act she called “grossly negligent.”

At the van’s next stop, Officer Goodson met the officers who made the initial arrest, and a sergeant who had arrived on the scene. Opening the van once again, they “observed Mr. Gray unresponsive on the floor of the wagon,” Ms. Mosby said.

The sergeant, she said, spoke to the back of Mr. Gray’s head, he did not respond, and “She made no effort to look, to assess or the determine his condition.”

When the van finally arrived at the Western District police station, and officers tried to remove him, “Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all,” Ms. Mosby said. She said a medic was summoned, and found Mr. Gray in cardiac arrest, and he was rushed to a hospital.

The Police Department completed its initial investigation into Mr. Gray’s death and also handed its findings to Ms Mosby’s office, on Thursday. Prosecutors added the police work to their own investigation, and Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said his department will now take direction from them about what leads to pursue.Alan Blinder reported from Baltimore, and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York.


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8) Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Struggles With Suicides Among Its Young
By

PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION, S.D. — A few days before Christmas, Santana Janis, a 12-year-old Lakota Indian, decided that she did not want to live anymore.

A bright, outgoing girl with a shy smile and passion for horseback riding, Santana’s moods had turned dark. She lived in a derelict two-bedroom trailer with a grandfather, Earl Tall, and as many as a dozen siblings and cousins. Her mother, an alcoholic, was an intermittent presence in her life. Their town, Manderson, was torn by drinking, fighting and violence.

Mr. Tall overheard his granddaughter’s talk of suicide and called her other grandfather, Keith Janis, who immediately drove 40 miles to see her. “I sat down with her and said, ‘Please, promise Grandpa you’ll never do that,’ ” Mr. Janis recalled last week. “She gave me that big, beautiful smile of hers and said, ‘O.K., Grandpa, O.K.’ ”

Six weeks later, Santana hanged herself in a small, unheated building next to the trailer.Since December, the Pine Ridge reservation, a vast, windswept land of stunning grasslands and dusty plateaus, has been the scene of an unfolding crisis: nine people between the ages of 12 and 24 have committed suicide here.

Two teenagers hanged themselves in December. In the next three months, seven more young people were found dead, including Alanie Martin, 14, who was known for her love of basketball, cheerleading and traditional Indian hand games. When Santana killed herself in February, she followed another recent suicide of a boy who attended her school, Wounded Knee, so named for the 1890 massacre that occurred where the reservation stands today.

Many more youths on the reservation have tried, but failed, to kill themselves in the past several months: at least 103 attempts by people ages 12 to 24 occurred from December to March, according to the federal Indian Health Service. Grim-faced emergency medical workers on the reservation, which is the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, say they have been called to the scenes of suicide attempts sometimes several times a day.

Tribe officials, clergy members and social workers say they cannot remember such a high rate of suicides and attempts in such a short period of time on the reservation, which is already overwhelmed with high rates of unemployment, poverty, domestic abuse and alcohol addiction.

In 2013, five people, including adults and children, killed themselves in a single year, according to the Oglala Sioux tribe. But officials at Pine Ridge said they were mystified by the far more pronounced increase in the past several months and had searched, unsuccessfully, for answers.

As the suicides began to mount in February, the Oglala Sioux tribe president, John Yellow Bird Steele, declared an emergency on the reservation. In response, the Indian Health Service deployed additional counselors, but many people here say it is not nearly enough: There are only six mental health professionals on the entire reservation, which has a population of 16,000 to 40,000 members of the tribe.

“It is devastating,” Mr. Steele said. “I don’t know if they were cyberbullied, or if they had living conditions they didn’t want to put up with, or they were sexually abused. Were they hungry? I don’t know.”“When you have a good understanding of what’s happening,” he said, “come back and tell me.”

But family members and tribe officials said they had seen disturbing clues.

Outside the Pine Ridge School, where four of its 800 students have committed suicide in recent months, Myra Slow Bear, 15, a friend of Alanie’s, said that other students had been bullying Alanie.

“I knew she was depressed,” she said. Among teenagers at the school, she said, attempting suicide is not unusual.

“It’s just a common thing,” she said.

Mr. Tall, Santana’s grandfather, also said that she had conflicts with other students at school. An official with knowledge of the case said that shortly before Santana committed suicide, another girl at school had written to her on Facebook, urging her to kill herself.

Several officials with knowledge of the cases said that at least one of the youths who committed suicide was influenced by Slender Man, a tall, faceless creature who appears in storytelling websites, often as a figure who stalks and kills victims. Two girls in a Milwaukee suburb last summer said the character had inspired them in the attempted murder of a classmate.

“They call him the Tall Man spirit,” said Chris Carey, a minister who works with youths, some of them suicidal, on the reservation. “He’s appearing to these kids and telling them to kill themselves.”

Mr. Steele, who said many Native Americans traditionally believe in a “suicide spirit” similar to Slender Man, said that young people had been sharing disturbing videos on Facebook that encourage suicide. One video, he said, gave instructions on tying a hangman’s noose. Another directed children to go to a specific place outside the village, saying there were ropes there. “Go use them,” the video instructed.

John Two Bulls, a pastor who works with youths on the reservation, said that two months ago, he was tipped off to a group suicide planned in a wooded area outside the town of Pine Ridge. Frantic, he drove to the spot.

“It was cold, it was dark, and there was a row of trees with ropes hanging off the branches,” he said. “I was thankful that we were able to get there without finding anybody hanging from those ropes.”

Some teenagers had already congregated there, he said, and he urged them to gather around. “I counseled them, prayed with them, talked with them,” he said. They told him that “they were tired of the lives they had at home, no food, with parents all intoxicated, and some were being abused, mentally or sexually.”

Mental health professionals said they suspected that in some cases, young people might have been influenced by previous suicides. Feeling neglected, they can be attracted to the public displays of mourning that follow a death; and once they hear about the method of suicide, they imitate it.

“Contagion does occur with teenagers,” said Stephanie Schweitzer Dixon, the executive director of the Front Porch Coalition, a suicide prevention group in Rapid City, S.D. “Kids are young, they don’t think clearly, their brains aren’t fully developed. I know that things seem to be getting worse for kids. Things seem to be getting more dire.”

Ted Hamilton, the superintendent of the Red Cloud Indian School, a Jesuit school on the reservation, said that suicide is an issue that schools grapple with constantly.

“To be Lakota in this world is a challenge because they want to maintain their own culture, but they’re being told their culture is not successful,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Children on Indian reservations, he added, have extraordinary challenges: the legacy of oppression and forced removals, the lack of jobs and economic opportunity, and the high levels of drug and alcohol use around them.

“The federal government has dropped the ball in terms of mental health resources,” Mr. Hamilton said. “The system is overwhelmed. No matter which reservation you go to, that’s what you’ll find.”

Ron Cornelius, the Great Plains director of the Indian Health Service, said in a statement that the recent suicides were “an incredibly sad situation” that the agency was determined to address. “I.H.S. is committed to working with the tribe to address this heartbreaking problem,” he said.

When Mr. Janis, a longtime activist, talks about Santana’s death, he points to the “multigenerational trauma” inflicted on Native Americans by whites and the tensions that still exist between the groups. On an overnight trip to Rapid City over the New Year, a group of girls including Santana overheard a white woman call them “filthy Indians” as they passed through a hotel lobby, he said.

“My beautiful Lakota granddaughter,” he said. “She had to hear that. Our kids today just want to die because they’re sick of all this oppression.”

Last week, at the Pine Ridge Gospel Fellowship, a small, white clapboard church in the heart of the reservation, a group of clergy members, social workers and tribal elders met for an informal prayer session.

As one pastor played hymns on an acoustic guitar, Norma Blacksmith, who lost a grandson to suicide several years ago, bowed her head and closed her eyes.

“In our culture, Lord, the children are sacred,” she said. “We thank you that there have been no suicides in this last week. You answered our prayer.”




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9) Clashes in Philadelphia as Freddie Gray Protest Neared Highway
By JON HURDLE and DANIEL E. SLOTNIK

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/clashes-in-philadelphia-as-freddie-gray-protest-neared-highway.html?ref=us

PHILADELPHIA — Skirmishes erupted when protesters tried to breach a line of police officers who were trying to keep them off a highway in Philadelphia on Thursday night.

The protesters were marching to show solidarity after unrest in Baltimore after the death there of Freddie Gray, who sustained a spinal cord injury while in police custody.

About 1,000 demonstrators had snarled traffic on many streets in Center City Philadelphia as they chanted and waved signs with slogans like “Killer cops modern lynchers” and “Philly is Baltimore.” The protests had been largely peaceful until shortly before 8 p.m., when demonstrators encountered a wall of officers, many on motorcycles or horseback, cutting off access to the Vine Street Expressway.

Protesters hurled plastic water bottles and jostled with the police. At least one mounted police officer charged protesters in an attempt to get them to disperse, and the demonstrators shouted invectives at the officers.The fracas lasted about 20 minutes before officers diverted the protesters away from the highway. Two police officers on the scene said that no one had been arrested.

Demonstrators also rallied in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday night.

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10) American Psychological Association Bolstered C.I.A. Torture Program, Report Says
By

WASHINGTON — The American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the administration of President George W. Bush to bolster a legal and ethical justification for the torture of prisoners swept up in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror, according to a new report by a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists.

The report is the first to examine the association’s role in the interrogation program. It contends, using newly disclosed emails, that the group’s actions to keep psychologists involved in the interrogation program coincided closely with efforts by senior Bush administration officials to salvage the program after the public disclosure in 2004 of graphic photos of prisoner abuse by American military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.“The A.P.A. secretly coordinated with officials from the C.I.A., White House and the Department of Defense to create an A.P.A. ethics policy on national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the C.I.A. torture program,” the report’s authors conclude.

The involvement of health professionals in the Bush-era interrogation program was significant because it enabled the Justice Department to argue in secret opinions that the program was legal and did not constitute torture, since the interrogations were being monitored by health professionals to make sure they were safe.

The interrogation program has since been shut down, and last year the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a detailed report that described the program as both ineffective and abusive.

Rhea Farberman, a spokeswoman for the American Psychological Association, denied that the group had coordinated its actions with the government. There “has never been any coordination between A.P.A. and the Bush administration on how A.P.A. responded to the controversies about the role of psychologists in the interrogations program,” she said.

The Bush administration relied more heavily on psychologists than psychiatrists or other health professionals to monitor many interrogations, at least in part because the psychological association was supportive of the involvement of psychologists in interrogations, a senior Pentagon official explained publicly in 2006.

The American Psychological Association “clearly supports the role of psychologists in a way our behavioral science consultants operate,” said Dr. William Winkenwerder, then the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, describing to reporters why the Pentagon relied more on psychologists than psychiatrists at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. “The American Psychiatric Association, on the other hand, I think had a great deal of debate about that, and there were some who were less comfortable with that.”By June 2004, the Bush administration’s torture program was in trouble. The public disclosure of the images of prisoners being abused at the Abu Ghraib prison earlier that year prompted an intense debate about the way the United States was treating detainees in the global war on terror, leading to new scrutiny of the C.I.A.’s so-called enhanced interrogation program, which included sleep deprivation and waterboarding, or simulated drowning. Congress and the news media were starting to ask questions, and there were new doubts about whether the program was legal.

On June 4, 2004, the C.I.A. director, George J. Tenet, signed a secret order suspending the agency’s use of the enhanced techniques, while asking for a policy review to make sure the program still had the Bush administration’s backing.

“I strongly believe that the administration needs to now review its previous legal and policy positions with respect to detainees to assure that we all speak in a united and unambiguous voice about the continued wisdom and efficacy of those positions in light of the current controversy,” Mr. Tenet wrote in a memo that has since been declassified.

At that critical moment, the American Psychological Association took action that its critics now say helped the troubled interrogation program.

In early June 2004, a senior official with the association, the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists, issued an invitation to a carefully selected group of psychologists and behavioral scientists inside the government to a private meeting to discuss the crisis and the role of psychologists in the interrogation program.

Psychologists from the C.I.A. and other agencies met with association officials in July, and by the next year the association issued guidelines that reaffirmed that it was acceptable for its members to be involved in the interrogation program.To emphasize their argument that the association grew too close to the interrogation program, the critics’ new report cites a 2003 email from a senior psychologist at the C.I.A. to a senior official at the psychological association. In the email, the C.I.A. psychologist appears to be confiding in the association official about the work of James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the private contractors who developed and helped run the enhanced interrogation program at the C.I.A.’s secret prisons around the world.

In the email, written years before the involvement of the two contractors in the interrogation program was made public, the C.I.A. psychologist explains to the association official that the contractors “are doing special things to special people in special places.”

More than a decade later, the association’s actions during that critical time are coming under new scrutiny. Last November, the association’s board ordered an independent review of the organization’s role in the interrogation program. That review, led by David Hoffman, a Chicago lawyer, is now underway.

“We have been given a mandate by the A.P.A. to be completely independent in our investigation, and that is how we have been conducting our inquiry,” Mr. Hoffman said. “We continue to gather evidence and talk with witnesses and expect to complete the investigation later this spring.”

The three lead authors of the report are longtime and outspoken critics of the association: Stephen Soldz, a clinical psychologist and professor at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis; Steven Reisner, a clinical psychologist and founding member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology; and Nathaniel Raymond, the director of the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and the former director of the campaign against torture at Physicians for Human Rights.

“In 2004 and 2005 the C.I.A. torture program was threatened from within and outside the Bush administration,” Mr. Soldz said by email. “Like clockwork, the A.P.A. directly addressed legal threats at every critical juncture facing the senior intelligence officials at the heart of the program. In some cases the A.P.A. even allowed these same Bush officials to actually help write the association’s policies.”Ms. Farberman, the association’s spokeswoman, said that the group would wait until Mr. Hoffman’s investigation was complete before responding further, and so would not comment in detail on the critics’ report.

“We are focused on the independent review,” Ms. Farberman said.

For years, questions about the role of American psychologists and behavioral scientists in the development and use of the Bush-era interrogation program have been raised by human rights advocates as well as by critics within the psychological profession.

The critics frequently criticized the 2005 findings of an association committee, the Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security, or PENS, which concluded that it was appropriate for psychologists to remain involved with interrogations, to make sure they remained safe, legal, ethical and effective. The PENS report eventually drew so much criticism from within the psychological profession that the association was forced to retract its permissive guidelines.

But the degree to which the association allowed psychologists and other behavioral scientists from the national security agencies to help craft the PENS Task Force’s report was not fully understood until the recent disclosure of a trove of emails from one behavioral science researcher who died in 2008.

The emails are those of Scott Gerwehr, a researcher who worked at the RAND Corporation and later at a defense contractor who had close ties to behavioral scientists both at the psychological association and in the national security agencies.

The Gerwehr emails include many between association officials and government psychologists on which he was copied by friends and colleagues. The new report by the association’s critics is based in part on a comprehensive analysis of his email archive.

After the PENS Task Force completed its work in 2005, Mr. Gerwehr was copied on an email from Geoffrey Mumford, the director of science policy at the association, to Kirk Hubbard, a psychologist at the C.I.A., thanking Mr. Hubbard for helping to influence the task force outcome.

“Your views were well represented by very carefully selected task force members,” Mr. Mumford wrote. “I thought you and many of those copied here would be interested to know that A.P.A. grabbed the bull by the horns and released this Task Force report today.”

By that time, Mr. Hubbard had just left the C.I.A. to work for Mitchell Jessen and Associates, the company the contractors had created to conduct their work on the interrogation program.



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11) Mayor de Blasio Defends Police Response to Freddie Gray Protests in New York
By and

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/nyregion/new-york-officials-defend-aggressive-response-to-freddie-gray-protests.html?ref=nyregion

Mayor Bill de Blasio, facing an uproar over arrests at a Manhattan rally to protest strong-armed policing, offered a spirited defense of law enforcement on Thursday, brushing off concerns that demonstrators had been mistreated even as he insisted on his own commitment to reform.

Invoking his own past as a liberal organizer, Mr. de Blasio urged reporters “not to exaggerate what happened” at the Union Square rally on Wednesday night, saying the Police Department had acted appropriately in arresting 143 people marching to protest the death of a Baltimore black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody.

Two of those protesters were arrested after assaulting officers, one of whom was struck on the chin with a stick and injured, police officials said.

Police Commissioner William J. Bratton acknowledged that his department had staged an “assertive” response to keep demonstrators from blocking traffic in busy parts of Manhattan.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, convened a news conference after hearing complaints about the police response from allies like the Rev. Al Sharpton. “I’ve participated in plenty of protests, on plenty of issues,” the mayor said. “I believe deeply in how nonviolent protest has achieved social change.”

But, he added: “When the police give you instruction, you follow the instruction. It’s not debatable.”

The arrests on Wednesday, which prompted a protest from liberal groups outside Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, came amid a renewed debate in New York over aggressive police tactics, including an effort by the City Council to decriminalize low-level offenses, like public urination.

But Mr. de Blasio’s attitude was a far cry from late last year, when he allowed similar demonstrations to spill into the city’s highways and avenues. That episode, after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict an officer in the death of a Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, contributed to an open law enforcement rebellion against the mayor.

On Thursday, as in the past on police issues, Mr. de Blasio seemed to struggle to walk a tightrope. Even as Mr. Bratton, in a separate news conference, acknowledged a “much more assertive” approach to handling street protests, the mayor insisted that “the strategic approach is exactly the same.”

But the mayor eventually allowed that some “tactical adjustments” had been made in response to past cases in which officers had been injured, including a march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The result was a strained, and at times testy display by a mayor trying to balance liberal sympathies with the burdens of overseeing a police force whose tactics he once criticized.

Mr. de Blasio grew visibly frustrated at the notion that the police in Union Square had been too aggressive with protesters, telling reporters, “If you guys want to sensationalize, if you think that’s your contribution to society, feel free.”

He lamented that the news media did not focus on what he cited as his accomplishments in police reform, like a drop in civilian complaints against the Police Department.

In a telling shift, Mr. de Blasio rebuked his interlocutors for suggesting that some of the protesters arrested on Wednesday had done little to provoke a tough police response. In December, after the Garner protests, he lashed out at a journalist who suggested that some protesters had acted violently.

To the city’s liberal advocates — some of whom had marched alongside Mr. de Blasio during his candidate days — the mayor’s response was disappointing.

“All I heard was, ‘Listen to the police, do what the police say,’ ” said Gideon Oliver, a civil rights lawyer who represents a group that organized the rally. “If the mayor’s answer to problems of abuse of police discretion is ‘just listen to what police say,’ that’s obviously a very big problem.”

Still, Mr. Bratton and police officials were adamant that they had acted appropriately to rein in a demonstration that was threatening to become unruly and disrupt the city’s evening rush.

“Throughout the night we were extremely flexible,” Chief James P. O’Neill said at the Police Academy in Queens. “If the protests continue, we will continue to be flexible. It’s not just one strategy.”

Chief O’Neill added that one precinct captain, the commander of the 13th Precinct in Manhattan, had been struck in the head with a stick. “He’s got a nice cut on his jaw,” he said.

One veteran city supervisor, who was at Union Square on Wednesday, said he had been told at the onset that the police might take a more assertive approach than in past protests.

“They were free to protest on the sidewalk, and follow the law, and we would certainly let them express their rights,” said the supervisor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to detail department policies. “But if they broke the law, went into the street and stuff like that, we weren’t going to give them much and were going to start locking people up.”

Aside from the arrests, the supervisor said, the night went smoothly. “No major fights,” he said. “No major assaults on cops, or cops doing anything crazy to anyone else.”

Mr. de Blasio said on Thursday that the city would not take an “ironclad” approach to future protests, and would consider each demonstration case by case.

“It’s a big, complicated city,” the mayor said. “I have confidence, having been a public servant, having been a protester, that the N.Y.P.D. knows how to work out every situation.”

A reporter pointed out that Mr. de Blasio himself had been arrested during his run for mayor, as a show of civil disobedience to protest the closing of a public hospital in Brooklyn.

The mayor scoffed and said there was no comparison to what transpired on Wednesday night.

His own arrest, Mr. de Blasio said, “was the most choreographed thing on earth.”



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12) Baltimore Prosecutor Faces National History of Police Acquittals
By

With an unexpectedly speedy and sweeping announcement on Friday of homicide and abuse-of-power charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore’s chief prosecutor sent an unmistakable signal that the days when police misconduct drew a wrist slap are over.

It was a bold gesture, experts say — and a risky one. For the pledge may be an empty gesture unless prosecutors secure convictions in Mr. Gray’s death.

Both history and the circumstances of the case unveiled on Friday hint that it will be anything but easy. Brutality cases against police officers are notoriously difficult to win, and much about the case, including the evidence against the officers and their defense, remains unknown.

The state’s attorney for Baltimore City, Marilyn J. Mosby, is expected to seek an indictment, the next step toward a trial. Her chronology of Mr. Gray’s arrest on April 12 argued that he had been wrongly arrested, was placed inside a police van without being properly restrained by a seatbelt and, after suffering a severe spinal injury during transport, was repeatedly ignored despite pleading for medical help.

The six Baltimore Police Department officers face charges ranging from second-degree murder to manslaughter, assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. Ms. Mosby’s inquiry — “comprehensive, thorough and independent,” she said Friday — was completed in 18 days, less than a fourth of the time that Missouri prosecutors spent investigating the death of Michael Brown, which triggered riots and protests in Ferguson, Mo., last year.

That speed and confidence belie the difficulty that prosecutors may encounter in convincing a jury or juries that the six officers broke the law.

The bar for a manslaughter conviction is comparatively low; a jury must find that a defendant knew his or her actions could lead to a death, but recklessly disregarded that risk.

“The prosecution would simply have to demonstrate that the police were aware that someone might die because they didn’t properly transport him,” said Jens D. Ohlin, a criminal law professor at Cornell Law School. “They don’t have to show that they wanted him to die.”

Second-degree murder is more serious, implying that a defendant either wanted to cause a death or intentionally caused an injury that he or she knew could lead to death. Only one officer — the driver of the van, Officer Caesar Goodson — was accused of murder. While Ms. Mosby has not explained the charge, some have speculated that prosecutors will say Mr. Gray was deliberately given a so-called rough ride that slammed him against the van’s metal walls.

In Mr. Gray’s case, a Police Department general order required officers to restrain prisoners with seatbelts during transport to prevent injuries. But that order, in effect at least since 1997 and updated nine days before Mr. Gray’s death, appears to have been loosely followed by Baltimore officers.

While Ms. Mosby offered a detailed timeline of the events surrounding Mr. Gray’s death, she did not reveal any of the evidence supporting it. Nor did she say any of the officers personally caused the spinal injury that killed him.

But whatever case prosecutors make will have to overcome the inherent deference to police officers that most jurors take with them to the courtroom, experts said.

“It’s always difficult to get a guilty verdict against a police officer except in the worst and strongest cases,” said David A. Harris, a University of Pittsburgh professor who is a leading expert on racial profiling in law enforcement. “A police officer comes into a courtroom not just presumed to be innocent, but presumed to be the good guy.”

Behavior that might land some defendants in jail, such as beating or even shooting another person, are not just permitted for police officers but are assumed to be part of their work. Jurors are inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, Mr. Harris and others said, particularly if officers can show that they were merely doing their jobs as they always had.

The prosecutors face other hurdles. The witnesses and cellphone videos that have clarified a number of recent police-brutality incidents are absent in Mr. Gray’s case. Much of what happened to Mr. Gray occurred either in the presence of the officers who have been charged, or while he was alone in the back of the police wagon.

The prosecutors’ case would be strengthened should one or more of the six defendants decide to cooperate, or should they try to shift blame for the death. In practice, that happens only infrequently. Mr. Harris said it was even less likely with the police because of the loyalty among fellow police officers.

And even prosecutors with seemingly strong cases frequently lose. In 2010, jurors acquitted a Baltimore officer who had stopped a man he thought looked suspicious, searched him, then shot him twice in the back after he broke way and fled. The officer’s lawyer argued, and jurors agreed, that he had feared for his life because he thought the man was reaching for a gun as he ran away.

A year later a Baltimore judge acquitted three officers charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment after they picked up two teenagers, drove them miles from their homes and abandoned them, leaving one in another county after taking his shoes and socks. The judge, who convicted two officers on lesser misconduct charges, said that even legal police work involves detaining and threatening suspects.

Both the swiftness and the scope of the charges brought on Friday carry weight in a city where, critics say, poor, mostly black neighborhoods have boiled for years with resentment over police officers’ tactics.

“The larger message, if there is one, is that ‘we’re moving on these things,’ ” Mr. Harris said. “ ‘We’re taking them seriously, and there’s no longer going to be any kind of slowing down and taking it to the point where people wonder, whatever happened to that?’ ”



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13) Baltimore Braces for More Protests Over Freddie Gray Death
By

BALTIMORE — The city is bracing for more protests this weekend, following a tumultuous week that included looting and arson, the arrival of National Guard troops and the filing of criminal charges against six police officers in the case of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose death in police custody set off the unrest.

Thousands of people are expected here Saturday for a march organized by Malik Shabazz, president of the Washington-based Black Lawyers for Justice and a former chairman of the New Black Panther Party. For nearly two weeks, ever since Mr. Gray died, city leaders have been warning against “outside agitators,” an oblique reference to Mr. Shabazz, who is clearly making them nervous.

“They should be nervous,” Mr. Shabazz said in an interview Friday night. “The youth went off and had a rebellion because the established leadership has not represented them well.”

Protesters are expected to gather late Saturday morning in two spots: at the Gilmor Homes in northwest Baltimore where Mr. Gray was arrested, and also at City Hall, where Mr. Shabazz said he would give a “keynote address” at 3 p.m., as part of a mass rally that will begin at 2 p.m. and is scheduled to end at 6 p.m.

Mr. Shabazz, 46, who has led similar protests in cities like Ferguson, Mo., and Charleston, S.C., has been labeled “an extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which calls him a “racist black nationalist” with a “well-documented history of violently anti-Semitic remarks and accusations about the inherent evil of white people” who is “particularly skilled at orchestrating provocative protests.”

A march he led here last Saturday turned briefly violent after he urged protesters at a City Hall rally to “shut it down!” Mr. Shabazz said afterward that he was calling only for civil disobedience, not violence, but added that he was not surprised by the riots that tore through Baltimore earlier this week.

“The rebellion was brewing before I got here, and the rebellion was going to happen whether I got here or not,” he said.

Community activists and black religious leaders, including the Rev. Jamal Bryant, pastor of the Empowerment Temple, have said they will stay away from Saturday’s march; Mr. Bryant is planning his own rally at City Hall on Sunday. Melech Thomas, a divinity student and youth pastor, also said he would not attend.

Mr. Thomas said he had no objection to Mr. Shabazz, though he added, “It would be nice to actually see him at some of the community meetings we’ve had this week, and I can’t say that I have.”

With the National Guard still patrolling the streets, and a 10 p.m. citywide curfew in place, officials expect that this Saturday will be more peaceful than last. And the city’s mood shifted dramatically on Friday after Marilyn J. Mosby, the prosecutor for the city of Baltimore, announced that six police officers would face charges, including murder and manslaughter.

Ms. Mosby’s announcement set off a wave of jubilation in some black neighborhoods, prompting some to predict that Saturday’s events would be more celebration than protest. “She probably saved the city from a lot of stress that it didn’t need to go through,” said A. Dwight Pettit, a lawyer, who represents people accusing the police of misconduct.


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14) Hundreds Protest in Manhattan Against Police Brutality and Income Inequality
By

Protesters marched in the streets of New York City on Friday night to bring attention to police brutality and income inequality, two days after dozens of demonstrators were arrested.

Hundreds of protesters assembled in Union Square in Manhattan, planning to march east and then south to Foley Square; another group marched along the southern edge of Central Park. The protests came the same day that prosecutors in Baltimore charged six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after being injured while in police custody.

On Wednesday night, the police arrested 143 people in Manhattan during protests over Mr. Gray’s death. Some criticized the aggressive police response, but Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton defended the arrests.Mr. Bratton said on Friday that the police would work with demonstrators at the two permitted marches in the city and give them space to rally. But he cautioned that protesters had to follow the rules.

“It’s when they seek to create their own rules,” he said. “Then I’m sorry, they’re breaking the law. And we will deal with that appropriately and authoritatively.”

The protests were organized as part of May Day, an international workers’ holiday. One rally by union groups against income inequality began outside the home of Alice Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, near 60th Street and Park Avenue. Another group planned to march from Union Square to Foley Square, near City Hall.

Earlier in the day, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan closed for the day after protesters dropped thousands of leaflets from the museum’s spiral rotunda.

Edna Ishayik and Al Baker contributed reporting.


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