By Michigan Forward

May 16, 2012

Dear Supporters of Democracy in Michigan,

It has come to our attention that right-wing elements in state government are hard at work to make sure the petition to repeal the emergency manager dictator law never makes it to the ballot this November.

Board of Canvvassers; four members are at front, during contentious hearing April 26./ Photo Leonna McElvone

As you may know, the State Board of Canvassers split 2-2 along party lines and were unable to reach agreement that the petition met the 14 point font size for the headline. What you do not know is that the staff for the Michigan Secretary of State knew in advance that the font size was in fact correct before the hearing began.

They knew this because they asked for an independent analysis of the font size from a respected professor at Michigan State University. This professor analyzed the petition, confirmed that the font size was correct, transmitted his findings to the state at their request and promptly had his findings ignored in the final report to the board. In other words, the fix was in to make sure the dubious argument that the font size was incorrect would go forward in spite of proof that the state had to the contrary.

This omission creates a bold-face lie. The republican representatives on the board said the font size was incorrect despite their own staff knowing that it was in fact correct. The result makes the board of canvassers hearing nothing more than a scam concocted to paint the picture that something was wrong with the petitions when in fact, nothing was wrong.

Edith Payne, who marched with Dr. King and is one of the litigants in lawsuit against PA 4, testified before the Board of Canvassers April 26, 2012.

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 10 a.m. the Michigan Court of Appeals will hear arguments from attorneys representing the people of Michigan in Stand Up for Democracy. The judges on the panel were given  a sworn statement from Mr. Chris Corneal, Associate Professor of Graphic Design in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at Michigan State University. Mr. Corneal, apparently distressed that the state knew the font size was correct but continued to act as if it was not correct, typed his statement; found a notary public and swore that he was telling the truth about several important facts:

1. He was asked to review the font size of the petition headline that is in dispute.

2. He determined that the font size is correct.

3. He told elections officials the font size is correct before the hearing.

None of Professor Corneal’s findings saw the light of day at the board of canvasser’s meeting. Now his findings will not see their way into the court hearing either because the judges have ruled that neither the professor, his findings nor his testimony will be allowed before the court. Why? Because they were never presented at the board of canvassers’ hearing. And why is that? Because somebody at the Secretary of State’s office made sure that Professor Corneal’s review of the petition would not be included in the final report to the board of canvassers because it is in direct opposition to the right-wing challenge on the font size.The fix is in but we don’t have to let them get away with it.

Join other supporters of democracy today at 4 pm for a press conference at 600 W. Lafayette in downtown Detroit. Let them know they won’t get away with the lie any longer.

Then join Stand Up for Democracy for a prayer rally at 9 am outside the Michigan Court of Appeals in front of the old GM building at W. Grand Blvd. and Second where we will pack the courtroom for the 10 a.m. hearing. Stand together for justice and stand up for democracy.

Sincerely,

Stand Up for Democracy 

Michigan Forward | May 16, 2012 at 6:20 pm | Tags: emergency management, public act 4, repeal public act 4, stand up for democracy | Categories: Repeal Public Act 4 | URL: http://wp.me/p26azi-AE

Three thousand marched on Gov. Rick Snyder's house on MLK Day Jan. 26, 2012 to demand the end of PA 4

AFSCME Local 207 led protest against attacks on city workers, residents in April.

On May 4^th, AFSCME Local 207’s bargaining team met with management in our first formal contract negotiations. We meet again on the 18^th.  Management is demanding a second-class Jim Crow contract. It is clear that management thinks they can just take away the rights and benefits we worked years to win. If they don’t think we’ll strike, they won’t bargain. The members will have to prove them wrong.

UNION’S DEMANDS: Local 207 proposed contract language including pay raises of $2.00/hour in the first year, $1.50/hour in the second year, and a $1.00/hour raise in the third year. We proposed restitution of longevity, and leaving healthcare insurance and retirement as is.

Many AFSCME workers are single mothers with children; clerical workers make less than the poverty rate.

WAGES: They offered us no pay raise. In recognition of our union’s strength, management is not seeking direct wage cuts (though inflation has been cutting our wages for years). Instead, they to deduct more from our checks for new inferior health insurance and pension plans. Management wants to reduce our spendable income by about 10-15! That’s the same as a pay cut!

DURATION OF CONTRACT: They want a one-year contract. This so that the Director Sue McCormick and EMA consultants that she hired for over $300/hour can take a year to redo our job classifications and work rules, combine job duties, speed up the pace of work and reduce the numbers of DWSD workers, then have another go at us in 2013

PENSIONS: Those hired after July 1, 2012 would have a Defined Contribution pension plan, as opposed to our current Defined Benefit plan. If you were hired before July 1, 2012, they want you to pay 5% of your base pay rate to stay in our current DB plan. In management’s proposal, the only way to avoid the 5% pay check deduction would be to trade your DB pension for an inferior DC plan. The DC plan would reduce our pension to an annuity-type account, subject to the ups and downs of the financial markets and limited to what we could afford to contribute towards it. It would mean about a third less to live on once you retire, and if you live long enough, or have to spend more than you expected, you would be left penniless in your old age. Our DB plan is much more secure, based on years of service, final wages and a multiplication factor which is part of our current contract. It’s paid out for as you or your beneficiary lives. Our annuity plan is just a supplement to our pensions. Management’s proposal would essentially convert our whole pension plan to an annuity or retirement saving account, and devastate our basic pensions.

Many are demanding moratorium on Detroit's $12 billion debt to the banks.

HEALTHCARE: As we’ve said earlier, management wants to increase our total costs for health insurance by around 90% over the course of your employment. This is unacceptable.

UNION BUSTING: They want to strip our contract of anything that is out of sync with Federal Judge Cox’s 2011 order, including union officers with time off to do union work, seniority in promotions, beneficial past practices, and protections from privatization and subcontracting. They want to deny you the right to talk to your steward unless you’re being disciplined. They want discipline (including for attendance) to stay on your record for 36 months rather than the current 14 months, setting you up for further discipline and stopping you from being promoted. Management proposed a one-year probation period for new hires during which time they could be fired for anything without union representation. They even want Local 207 and Council 25 to drop our legal appeals of the Cox’s blatant union busting order!

We cannot let them take away our standard of living, especially since DWSD is not broke and our pension funds are secure. We will have to strike or let them loot our futures. Federal Judge Cox’s order for separate DWSD bargaining is an attempt to isolate Local 207 from the rest of the city workers. His attack on Local 207’s leadership and our union rights shows that our union is the only power that puts fear in the hearts of Cox, Snyder and Bing, and behind them, the rich white corporations who are attempting to “restructure” Detroit by smashing all vestiges of black power and workers power in a city that won’t quit fighting. The recent school walkouts show that Detroit has the will to fight.

The Water Department is where we make our stand. This is our opportunity to lead our majority-black, proud working-class city to victory against the corporations and their lackey politicians. If Local 207 members take up this challenge and fight not only for our union contract, but for the future of the Water Department and the city of Detroit, we can stop the vicious attacks against us, throw out the New Jim Crow plan our enemies have for us, and mount a fight that will change history.

Referring to unions, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that power means forcing someone to do what he doesn’t want to do. Management doesn’t want to treat us or Detroit with any respect. We must recognize our power and use it now to force them to do what they don’t want to do.

JONES FAMILY DEMANDED JUSTICE APRIL 23, 2012 OUTSIDE FRANK MURPHY HALL.

By Diane Bukowski

May 15, 2012 

DETROIT  – Attorneys for Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ father Charles Jones and Chauncey Owens called Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt’s exclusion of a hearsay statement by “jail-house snitch” Jay Schlenkerman in Jones’ case a victory May 11.  

Jay Schlenkerman testifying at preliminary exam for Charles Jones

“It’s a huge victory,” said Jones’ attorney Leon Weiss of the law firm of  Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Giroux & Danzig. “Based on what they have now, I don’t think they have enough to convict him of anything.” 

Both Weiss and Owens’ attorney David Cripps called Skutt’s ruling “courageous,” one that many other judges would not have made due to pressure from the daily media. 

Judge Skutt ruled that 36^th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes had “abused her discretion” by allowing the statement to come in against Jones.  He denied Weiss’ motion to quash a charge of first-degree murder, brought by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy in October, 2011, which alleged that Jones gave a gun to Owens to kill Je’Rean Blake, 17, in May, 2010. 

Killer cop Joseph Weekley shot 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, allegedly as depicted in expert's drawing, on May 16, 2010.

Two days later after the Blake killing, a Detroit police “Special Response Team” stormed the Jones home and shot 7-year-old Aiyana to death on May 16, 2010, causing international outrage.  A grand jury composed of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny indicted Detroit cop and Grosse Pointe Park resident Joseph Weekley, who shot her, only on manslaughter charges, at the time Jones was charges. Weekley is free on bond. 

“We’re happy,” said Jones’ mother Mertilla Jones (seen in photo at top with ‘Free Charles Jones’ sign) after the hearing. “We just want Charles home to be with the rest of his family, including his six little boys.” Judge Skutt refused to release Jones on tether, but said he would be open to considering such a release in the future. 

The Jones family, along with the family of Davontae Sanford, who is contesting his conviction of four murders to which hitman Vincent Smothers confessed, held a well-covered protest outside the Frank Murphy Hall on April 23, calling for the freedom of both men. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/04/28/free-davontae-and-charles-justice-for-aiyana-and-trayvon/. ) 

Charles Jones consults with attorney Leon Weiss during earlier hearing

Judge Skutt also ruled that two juries would hear evidence in a joint Owens-Jones trial, which was postponed until September 16, 2012.  The Jones jury will not hear Schlenkerman’s testimony that Owens allegedly told him the details of Blake’s killing, implicating Jones, which Skutt said could come in against Owens. 

Assistant Prosecutor David Moran claimed there was still enough evidence to hold Jones, citing the testimony of eyewitness Amber Holloway at the exam. Moran said she testified that she saw Owens and Jones exit their vehicle and approach Blake together. 

Chauncey Owens (with attorney David Cripps) earlier pled guilty to second-degree murder during hearing April 11, 2011; prosecutor reinstated charge of first-degree murder after he refused to testify against Charles Jones.

Afterwards, Weiss said Moran misrepresented her testimony. Holloway, who said she was in the car with Blake when they went to a liquor store on St. Jean and Mack, also testified that she did not recognize Jones until after she saw him on TV. She said Jones was in the vehicle, but never said she saw the shooting or saw Jones give a gun to Owens, or the pair approaching Blake. 

Owens’ attorney David Cripps said after the hearing that he plans to file a motion to exclude “the wholly unreliable testimony of the jailhouse snitch” against Owens as well. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/05/23/owens-never-said-aiyana-jones%e2%80%99-dad-gave-him-gun-used-in-teen%e2%80%99s-killing/ for story based on review of Owens’ court file.)

Schlenkerman celebrating Christmas after he gave statement to prosecutors in November, 3011.

 “I think it’s pretty clear that Judge Skutt has some concern about this statement,” Cripps said. “I think it’s pretty clear that he suggested [Schlenkerman’s] prompting of Owens took his alleged statements out of the realm of spontaneity. Why would Schlenkerman have testified if he did not think his own case would go more favorably as a result?” 

Schlenkerman is a six-time felon who was serving six months, reduced from one year, for a vicious three-day assault on his ex-girl-friend in May, 2011. According to medical records, the assault caused a closed head injury and other severe trauma, including sexual abuse.  The Brownstown Township police originally sought felony charges including kidnapping against Schlenkerman, but the Wayne County Prosecutor reduced the charges to misdemeanor domestic violence. 

Later, Schlenkerman faced eight charges of violating a Personal Protection Order for contacting the victim while he was incarcerated in the Wayne County Dickerson jail. The prosecutor dropped five of those charges in October, 2011. Schlenkerman was released on probation in November. He promptly gave a written statement to prosecutors about Owens’ alleged statements to him. 

Wayne County Dickerson Jail

He said he met Owens at Dickerson in October and had repeated conversations with him during which, after questioning by Schlenkerman, Owens essentially “spilled his guts” and said Jones gave him the gun used to kill Blake. The two had never previously met. 

After oral arguments by Weiss, Cripps and Moran, Judge Skutt said he had thoroughly reviewed all the cases cited in their briefs. 

Moran argued that the Schlenkerman’s hearsay statement should be allowed under Michigan Rule of Evidence (MRE) 804B and a 2008 Michigan Supreme Court (MSC) decision in People v. Taylor, among others.  He said Taylor invalidated a 1993 MSC decision in People v. Poole, which held that both MRE 804B and the Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Constitution applied. 

Judge Richard Skutt (Facebook photo)

In Taylor, the Court ruled that the Confrontation Clause (the defendant’s right to confront a witness) did not apply in that situation, where co-defendants implicated each other in a murder case. 

But Skutt ruled that Taylor preserved another part of Poole, in response to Weiss’ argument that Taylor did not throw “everything [in Poole] out the window.” 

He said Taylor left in place requirements that to be admissible, a hearsay statement must be a narrative, made by the declarant without prompting or urging, and wholly against the declarant’s interest. 

Citing the transcript of the preliminary exam where Schlenkerman testified, Judge Skutt said Schlenkerman testified that Owens made his alleged statements to him from the beginning of October through Schlenkerman’s release on Nov. 16, 2011, “in bits and pieces” almost every day, and on questioning by Schlenkerman. 

“The only way I can read that exchange is that the statement was not a narrative uttered spontaneously without prompting or inquiry, with more than just the indication that the individual was curious about why [Owens] watched Fox2 News, but that he was also curious about why [Owens] was there,” Judge Skutt said. 

“So I deny the motion to quash [the charge] but rule that the [Schlenkerman] statement will not be admitted here.” 

Prosecutor Moran later asked Judge Skutt to admit Schlenkerman’s statement against Owens himself. Skutt agreed to do so, Cripps said he will still ask for the exclusion of the statement against his client in a pre-trial hearing.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s chief communications officer Maria Miller told the Detroit News that they plan to appeal Skutt’s ruling.

Marchers rally against city, schools debt to banks at CAYMC May 9, 2012

Hundreds demand moratorium on Detroit’s debt during BOA protest    Pastor calls for mass turn-out at PA4 appeals hearing May 17 10 A.M. 

By Diane Bukowski 

May 12, 2012 

Linda Willis' sign says "Cancel the debt!"

DETROIT – Several hundred marchers called for a moratorium on Detroit’s $16.9 billion debt to the banks,  and even cancellation, during a protest at the city’s Bank of America (BOA) headquarters May 9, which concluded with a march to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (CAYMC). 

The marchers called out “No consent to the one percent, not one cent, cancel the debt,” and “The banks call the shots while Detroit rots!” 

 Thousands more marched across the country to protest BOA’a annual shareholders meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, where this year’s Democratic Convention will take place. 

Maureen Taylor campaigns against devastation of Detroit Public Schools

The Detroit protest was precedent-setting, the first march held focusing primarily on the banks as the architects of Detroit’s ruin.  In addition to the city’s debt, marchers also called for a moratorium on the debt of the Detroit Public Schools, noting that 80 percent of the DPS state per-pupil aid is set aside to pay the banks, resulting in the closure of hundreds of public schools, tens of thousands of lay-offs, and massive New Orleans-style charterization. 

“This demonstration is the first that has told the truth about the Financial Advisory Board,” Jerry Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition said during the rally. “The Financial Advisory Board is all about robbery by the banks. The city itself has been victimized by predatory lending. This year, it paid $597 million out of a budget of $1.2 billion on its debt. The consent agreement is a grab by the banks for our tax dollars, even if it means destroying every city service.” 

Detroit city workers face 2500 lay-offs

The Public Act 4 consent agreement passed by the Detroit City Council “Fatal Five” April 4 established all-powerful entities that will dictate to city officials. They include an unelected nine-member “Financial Advisory Board,” and a new Chief Financial Officer and Program Management Director approved by Governor Rick Snyder. 

State and city politicians, in collusion with the banks, are now rapidly dismantling Detroit. Shutdowns of the city’s health, human services, transportation, planning and development and other departments are in the works, along with the lay-offs of 2,500 city workers. 

“Jail the bankers, Dave Bing, Rick Snyder, and the City Council five,” Larry Hicks said. “Both the Democratic and Republican parties are working for the banks, not the people. We need third and fourth parties to organize the people to fight banksters like Bernie Madoff and others who stole billions. The local media does not tell the real news in this mediocracy. We need to boycott them and anything run by the banks.” 

Larry Hicks and Joe McGuire

Bob Day, attorney at the Legal Aid and Defenders Association, noted that the struggle against the banks is world-wide. 

“This battle is going on in Montreal, Greece, Spain, France and everywhere,” Day said. “People are saying to hell with the banks and their austerity programs. The banks set our communities up for disaster, and when it all fell down, they didn’t get hurt. They got bailed out by our tax dollars. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are out of their homes, and the loss of tax revenues to our cities has brought in Public Act 4 and emergency managers, which guarantee that the banks will get paid first, This is nothing but a dictatorship of the banks. What we need is world revolution.” 

Rev. Charles E. Williams Sr. calls on marchers to pack COA hearing on PA4 referendum May 17

The Rev. Charles E. Williams Sr. called on the marchers to pack an emergency appeals court hearing on the April 26 state Board of Canvassers’ vote preventing a referendum against Public Act 4 from getting on the November ballot. The Act has disenfranchised over half of Michigan’s African-American population while dismantling their cities and school districts, in Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac, Highland Park, Inkster, and now Detroit among others. 

The hearing is Thursday, May 17 at 10 a.m. before a panel consisting of Appeals Court Judges Kurtis T. Wilder (presiding), Kirsten Frank Kelly, and Michael Riordan. It will take place in the Detroit office of the Court of Appeals at in the Cadillac Place Building (old GM building), on West Grand Blvd. at Second. 

 Stand Up for Democracy filed the case, with amicus curiae briefs filed by the Michigan ACLU, Michigan AFSCME, and others. 

Attorney Vanessa Fluker is flanked by UAW officials and members

“We must galvanize the public and energize ourselves,” Rev. Williams Sr. said. “We must meet the judges there and hold them hostage to do the right thing. Two hundred thousand signatures mean something. Be there; stand in the judges’ face!” 

Attorney Vanessa Fluker spoke on behalf of the tens of thousands of homeowners who have been victimized by foreclosures on predatory mortgages. 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re disabled, or a senior citizen,” Fluker said. “They will throw you right out on the street. You can send 10, 20, 30 requests for loan modification in and it doesn’t matter as long as they get you out of your house and get paid in full with our tax dollars for the mortgages.” 

Shealia Tyson said the march was “long overdue.” 

Disabled protester is facing eviction

“I came here in 2000 and worked at hard,” Tyson explained. “I recognized then that there was a massive foreclosure problem looming, but nobody would listen. People were being victimized by the mortgage companies. One young lady’s mortgage note ballooned to $1600.” 

Ms. Laurene Brown said, “Leaders in high places are committing crimes against the people of Detroit.”  Quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14, she said they will face retribution. 

The verse reads, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 

Others who spoke at the historic rally included Joe McGuire of Occupy Detroit, A.J. Freer, 2^nd Vice-President of United Auto Workers Local 600,  Wayne County Commissioner Martha Scott, who has sponsored a resolution for a moratorium on foreclosures, and Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, a prime leader in the fight against Public Act 4 and the takeover of Detroit. 

Bob Day called for world revolution

Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 marchers converged from three different directions on the BOA shareholders meeting in Charlotte, under heavy police repression. Organizers called it the largest protest of its kind in the history of BOA shareholders meetings.

Dozens of shareholders inside, including New York City’s comptroller,  peppered BOA CEO Brian Moynihan with angry comments about BOA’s foreclosures and failure to modify home loans properly.  (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/5-protesters-arrested-trying-to-enter-bank-of-america-shareholders-meeting-in-north-carolina/2012/05/09/gIQANt52CU_story.html ). 

An analyst from Credit Agricole Securities ranked Moynihan, who makes $7.1 million a year in salary alone, as the nation’s worst big bank CEO. (http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/09/bank-of-america-moynihan-worst-ceo/)

Below if video of “Flash Mob” action at Detroit’s Bank of America May 8, 2012.

‘Monopoly’ Protest Temporarily Shuts BoA Branch in Detroit: MyFoxDETROIT.com

VOD note: the story below details Michigan’s version of the “Stand Your Ground’ Law, the “Self-Defense Act” passed in 2006 allowing individuals greater latitude to “shoot first, ask questions later.”

Ian May

18-year-old killed by retired cop with history of brutality during alleged robbery

 By Diane Bukowski 

May 11, 2012 

DETROIT — Questions surround the death of 18-year-old Ian May on March 23. He was shot in the back of the head by security guard and retired cop Lamar Nowell Sr., while running from the scene of an “inside job” robbery at a Dollar General store on East Lafayette near downtown Detroit. 

The questions involve not only May’s case, but the mindset of young people in Detroit today, deprived in many cases of homes, schools, libraries, recreation centers, jobs and guidance in a devastated city they did not create or ask to be born into. 

Trayvon Martin

They also involve the mindset of adults like U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who characterized Detroit’s primary problem as “youth violence” during the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner May 6, and George Zimmerman, who patrolled his Sanford, Florida neighborhood to keep Black youth like Trayvon Martin out, eventually brutally murdering the 17-year-old. 

IAN MAY, 18 

“Despite the picture the newspapers painted, Ian was straight up the most adorable, lovable, funniest, happy big kid that I know,” a friend of May’s mother Lidjinet Graves told mourners at his funeral March 30. It was overflowing with May’s family and friends, including dozens of youths wearing T-shirts with his photo. 

A uniformed honor guard from a private security agency May had worked for flanked his coffin. 

Ian May's high school diploma

“We knew him as Big Ian [pronounced “een”],” a relative said. “He was an awesome young man who left a tremendous impact on the lives of many young people and adults as well. He made life seem so easy and free. What will I do without your jokes, Ian?” 

May graduated from Detroit public and private schools with his high school diploma, and from the Job Corps, according to his obituary.  

He also worked a summer job at the Detroit Department of Human Services, now in the process of being shut down by Mayor Dave Bing and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. 

VIDEOTAPE SHOWED SHOOTING 

His grandfather Jerome Brown told VOD at the funeral that a store videotape police showed to May’s mother affirms that Ian was shot in the back, then fell on his face. Family members saw the gunshot wound in the back of his head at the funeral home, he said.  Initial daily media reports claimed Nowell shot Ian in the face as Ian confronted him with a gun.

Dollar General store on E. Lafayette

“It was wrongfully reported,” Brown said. “He didn’t point at gun or shoot at anyone, he ran away. We just want to make sure that videotape doesn’t disappear. How can it be right to shoot a kid like that who was running away?” 

VOD requested a copy of the autopsy report from the Wayne County Medical Examiner, but was informed weeks later that it was still not complete. 

During the preliminary exam of Dollar General store cashier Andrea Liles, fired worker Jazmine Marshall, and Lile’s child’s father Ovid Jones May 1, the store’s young manager testified that he and Liles were on duty at the time of the robbery. 

He said two men approached Liles and demanded money. The manager testified that he opened the cash register with his keys to give them the money.  He did not say how they got into the store, which had not opened yet.

"Fleeing felon" rule applied in May's case

“The taller man had the gun to Andrea’s side and told her, ‘come on baby, let’s empty all these cash registers,’” the manager said.  He did not describe or identify either man, other than to say one was taller and one was shorter. He testified that he himself opened the registers with his keys. As he was about to let the men out, he said, the security guard opened the door. 

“He said, ‘freeze,’ the manager testified. “Lamar said he was a retired police officer, and they took off running.” 

No forensic testimony about the gun allegedly involved was introduced at the preliminary exam. 

Graves said the prosecutor assigned to the case told her the guard had a right to shoot Ian because he was a “fleeing felon,” and that the guard “presumed” he was armed whether or not he saw a weapon. Graves said she believes the guard saw no gun. 

SHOOT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER 

In other words, shoot first and ask questions later. It appeared from the manager’s testimony that there was very little time for the guard to determine exactly what had just happened. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Maria Miller, communications representative for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, told VOD, “The investigation of the fatal shooting of Ian May was submitted to our office by the Detroit Police Department and the evidence was reviewed. It was determined that the shooter would not be charged because his actions were legally justified under the facts and evidence in the case.” 

Police investigator Alvin Williams, the prosecution’s chief witness, read statements he took in his own writing from the defendants. They wove a confusing story involving two different alleged plots by the defendants to set up the robbery, with several backing out and trying to get others to take their place. One account implicated the manager himself. 

May’s mother told VOD her son received a call at 4 a.m. that morning from a friend. He was sleeping after an evening of work. She said her affable son was sometimes gullible. 

“He would tell me, ‘Mom they’re my friends,’ and I would tell him, ‘Everybody is not your friend, Ian,” Graves said. 

LAMAR NOWELL, SR. 

Lamar Nowell, Sr. (Photo from Linked In page)

According to court records, Lamar Nowell, Sr., now 62, of Southfield, was already retired from the Detroit Police Department when he was convicted of felony “aggravated stalking” in 1994, for incidents involving his ex-wife, also a retired officer. On appeal, his conviction was converted to misdemeanor stalking. 

Several Detroiters sued him for brutality during his tenure in the 1980’s, winning undisclosed settlements. 

Michael Seals, a Kettering High School graduate and Detroit Memorial Hospital custodian, said Nowell smashed him in the face with his fist, knocking out of three front teeth and injuring his face. He said he had been visiting his mother next door to a gas station when police carried out a drug raid on the station. They forced him inside when he went out to inquire what was going on, says the suit. 

Charges against Seals for interfering with a police officer were later dismissed. 

“I WANT YOU, BITCH!” 

Helen and Herman Collins sued Nowell in 1987. The lawsuit says Ms. Childs went outside after officers had stopped her son and two friends in front of her home on Wisconsin, and that she yelled to her son to stop resisting. 

Nowell was sued for brutality

As she was going back to her house, says the suit, Nowell “grabbed her by the hair, pulling her to the ground, yelling ‘I want you bitch.” It says Nowell and the other cops beat her on the face and body, causing a concussion, multiple injuries to her spine, sprains of both hands and a shoulder, and “multiple contusions over her entire upper extremities.” 

Charges against her for interfering with the officers were dismissed after Nowell failed to show up for the hearing. 

In an earlier case, in 1980, Ellen and Odell Collins sued Nowell and four other officers for breaking down the door of their home and holding them at gunpoint, before discovering they were at the wrong address. 

NOWELL TODAY 

Nowell’s “Linked-in” page, with his photo, says he is currently a “Loss Prevention consultant, Licensed Private Investigator, owner of a Private Security Guard agency, Concert, dance Promoter/ Instructor and D.J.” 

Does Nowell have a CCW?

There is no record on the state website of a “Professional Investigator “ license for Nowell (the state term for a PI), or of a license as a security guard agency owner, required under Michigan Public Act 330 of 1968. That act says part of its purpose is “to protect the general public against unauthorized, unlicensed and unethical operations by individuals engaged in private security activity.” 

It is unknown whether Nowell has a concealed weapons permit or simply carries a gun as a “retired police officer,” which would be illegal.

Nowell’s page says he is also CEO of Courtesy Process Service, LLC, and of Dance N Harmony, and that he owns Englewood Maintenance Company. The first company is registered with the state, the other two are not. 

Nowell can now add to his resume that he is the killer of 18-year-old Ian May.

Note: VOD did not contact Nowell for comments, having earlier been threatened with criminal charges by the prosecutor’s office for contacting witnesses in ongoing cases. 

“FLEEING FELONS” 

"Detroit 300" members at Hart Plaza rally for Trayvon Martin; Martin's killer Zimmerman was, like them, a self-appointed "neighborhood watch" man

Pumped up by people like Attorney General Holder, Detroit police chief Ralph Godbee, and the Detroit 300, many will say that Ian May “got what he deserved.” There are more and more reports of youths dying during home break-ins and other alleged robberies in recent months. 

Detroit, already the poorest city in the country, is now under “state occupation” as Rev. Charles E. Williams II says in the article below. The passage of the Public Act 4 consent agreement by the City Council provides for the virtual dismantling of most city services, meaning conditions for youth in Detroit will worsen drastically in months to come. 

Michigan paralegal Edward Sanders researched Michigan’s “Self-Defense Act,” Public Act 313, which took effect in 2006. It has been compared to the Florida law Zimmerman is using to justify his killing of Trayvon Martin. 

Edward Sanders

The law transformed earlier precedent under People v. Riddle, a 2002 Michigan Supreme Court case, said Sanders. 

“Generally, a person acting in self-defense [had] a duty to retreat from the attack if he or she can do so safely, but retreat is never required in the person’s own home, nor is retreat required in the case of a sudden and fierce violent attack or if the person reasonably believes the attacker is about to use a deadly weapon,” Sanders wrote. 

MICHIGAN’S “SELF-DEFENSE ACT” 

The Michigan Self –Defense Act, however, passed after a campaign by gun rights activists, eliminated the duty to retreat in additional circumstances. 

“It specifies that a person could use deadly force against another individual, without a duty to retreat, if he or she were not engaged in the commission of a crime and honestly and reasonably believed that force was necessary to prevent imminent death, bodily harm, or sexual assault,” said Sanders. 

The law expanded where a person can use deadly force, from inside their home to garages, barns and yards, among other provisions. However, said Sanders, the Self-Defense Act preserved the common law duty to retreat in other circumstances. 

According to a 2006 Detroit Free Press article, former Governor Jennifer Granholm signed the law, but forced changes including protecting victims of domestic assault and allowing prosecutors to investigate such shootings. 

Even Ottawa County Prosecutor Ron Frantz, then president of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Association of Michigan, told the Free Press, “We don’t want murderers falsely using self-defense claims without being subject to the scrutiny of prosecutors and juries.” 

TIGH CROFF CASE 

Tigh Croff serving two years on a gun charge

In reality, this rarely happens. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy did bring second-degree murder charges against Tigh Croff, a 31-year-old security guard who caught two men outside his home when he returned from work, after two break-ins had occurred the previous week, in Nov. 2009. 

He chased Herbert Silas, a 53-year-old unarmed homeless grandfather of 13, down the street for several blocks, then shot him to death. 

“I told him he was going to die, and I shot him,” Croff told police. “I ain’t no angel, but I ain’t done nothing stupid.” 

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway reduced the charges to voluntary manslaughter over the prosecutor’s objections, and later refused to recuse himself from the case. In off the record comments, Hathaway had expressed sympathy for Croff, saying he himself would not hesitate to shoot in similar circumstances. 

Judge Michael Hathaway

After a hung jury in the first trial, a second jury convicted Croff of manslaughter and a firearms charge. Hathaway sentenced Croff to three years’ probation for the manslaughter charge, although he faced up to 17 years in prison. Hathaway had to sentence him to a mandatory two years in prison on a gun charge. 

Croff is currently incarcerated at the Parnell Correctional Facility. 

VOD COMMENTARY

 Detroiters need to examine their consciences regarding whether taking private property,  particularly that belonging to predatory local store owners who pay low wages, is worth the life of youths like Ian May. 

In August, 2011, another “retired Detroit police officer” shot 16-year-old Robert Coffee eight times. A gunshot wound in the back, which penetrated his lungs and heart, was likely the fatal wound. Coffee had allegedly robbed a McDonald’s at W. McNichols and Livernois. According to news reports, the “retired cop” regularly frequented to store to use its Internet. 

McDonald's the day after Robert Coffee, 16, was shot to death

Earlier, another “retired cop” shot a Grosse Pointe South High star football player, who lived in Detroit, to death on W. Seven Mile near the Lodge Freeway, claiming he had attempted to rob him. 

VOD went to the scene of the McDonald’s incident the following day and saw that the front windows and door of the store were boarded up after being blasted out by the retired cop during Coffee’s attempt to escape. No eyewitnesses were present, but one youth told VOD, “It’s too bad that it takes a white person to ask questions about what happens to kids like us.” 

In arguing against juvenile life without parole sentences, prisoner advocates have cited extensive medical evidence showing that full brain development including impulse control does not happen until around the age of 25. They argue that the evidence shows that youth are not as culpable as adults for what they do. The U.S. is now the only country in the world that sentences youth to death in prison. The same argument should apply to execution in the streets. 

Two weeks after May died, several youths robbed another Dollar General store, but none were killed. Since then, two youths have been shot to death during home break-ins, during which one homeowner also shot his own wife, non-fatally.  

Larry Hicks demands moratorium on city's $16.9 billion debt to the banks at protest May 9, 2012

Whatever happened to “STOP OR I’LL SHOOT?” Black youths like Trayvon Martin, Ian May, and Robert Coffee are considered expendable by many in this country, “collateral damage” in the “war against crime.” 

WHERE IS THE WAR AGAINST THE CRIMINAL BANKS, CORPORATIONS, AND POLITICIANS WHO HAVE DESTROYED CITIES LIKE DETROIT AND CONTINUE TO WREAK HAVOC ACROSS THE WORLD, A WORLD THESE YOUNG PEOPLE DID NOT MAKE?

By  Rev. Charles E. Williams Sr. revwilliams72@hotmail.com

May 10, 2012 

I attended the Fight for Freedom Fund dinner Sunday night, and it was abysmal and repulsive. 

At a time when African Americans in Detroit are up under a major assault and faced with state occupation, the assault on Blacks in Michigan was barely mentioned at the event.  I was at the dinner for two hours, leaving just as the keynote speaker, Eric Holder, was being introduced. I exited because I could not take any longer the ignoring of the African American plight by the event’s earlier speakers. 

At a time when Detroiters and residents of other cities with a high concentration of African Americans are being disenfranchised (or faced with voter suppression legislation), how could this very issue not be the major topic or theme of the conversation at the dinner? 

Atty.General Eric Holder, shown with Detroit NAACP President Wendell Anthony, refused U.S. Rep. John Conyers' request, made in Dec. 2011, to investigate PA4's violations of National Voting Rights Act.

The only speaker who spoke or made any significant reference to what we are faced with here in Michigan was Rachael Maddow, who rightly stated that this issue is so important, it should be the topic of conversation of newspapers and news programs all over the country.  Maddow, however, spoke for only about five minutes. She was an awards recipient, so she accepted her award, made the important observation and apologized for needing to leave early. I think she was as nauseous as I was by the time she spoke and any excuse was good enough to make a gracious exit. 

As Malcolm X said over 50 years ago regarding The March on Washington, “it was a circus,” a spectacle.

Gerard Anderson

The dinner sent mixed messages beginning with who was invited and who was introduced as friends of the NAACP. The corporate chair, Gerard Anderson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DTE Energy, was bouncing around and spoke for about fifteen minutes. Although he expressed love and concern for the main people being affected by the radical changes coming our way, I wonder how he can be in love with the same people whom his company helps oppress. It is common knowledge that DTE Energy is a major contributor to American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC.) 

ALEC is anti-American and anti-democratic; it is a critical arm of the right-wing network of policy shops that, with infusions of corporate cash from corporations like DTE, have evolved to shape legislation like Stand Your Ground, and voter suppression laws all over the country.

Inspired by Milton Friedman’s call for conservatives to “develop alternatives to existing policies [and] keep them alive and available,” ALEC’s model legislation reflects long-term goals: Controlling government, removing regulations on corporations like DTE and making it harder to hold the economically and politically powerful like Governor Snyder to account.      

March against DTE at shareholders' meeting May 3, three days before NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner

UNIONS BROUGHT 10,000 MEMBERS OUT TO STOP THE PASSAGE OF PUBLIC ACT 4 IN LANSING APRIL 13, 2011; NOW IS THE TIME FOR THEM TO EXERCISE THEIR ECONOMIC CLOUT WITH A GENERAL STRIKE

APPEALS COURT HEARING MAY 17, 2012, 10 A.M. CADILLAC PLACE (DETROIT STATE BUILDING AT SECOND AND W. GRAND BLVD) 

Wednesday, May 09, 2012, 4:29 PM

By Tim Martin | tmartin4@mlive.com MLive.com

A coalition that wants to repeal Michigan’s law giving more power to state-appointed emergency managers is headed to court to try and revive its stalled effort.

Stand Up for Democracy is scheduled to make oral arguments before the Michigan Court of Appeals on May 17. The union-supported coalition is fighting a recent action by the Board of State Canvassers that prevented its proposal from appearing on the November ballot because some of the lettering on its petitions was deemed smaller than required by state law.

Stand Up for Democracy says its print was the proper size. But canvassers deadlocked on the proposal.

The coalition says it collected more than 225,000 signatures, which would be more than enough to make the ballot.

Stand Up for Democracy supporters say the election board’s vote was politically motivated, with Republicans opposing their effort to repeal the law.

“It was just crazy,” said Greg Bowens, a Stand Up for Democracy spokesman. “There’s really no other way to put it.”

Opponents of the Stand Up for Democracy effort plan to defend their stance when the Court of Appeals holds oral arguments on the issue.

Stand Up for Democracy considers Public Act 4 of 2011 undemocratic because it allows emergency managers to toss out union contracts and strip power from locally elected leaders. But supporters of the Michigan law, including Gov. Rick Snyder, say it provides the tools necessary to help financially struggling cities and schools fix their finances more quickly and effectively.

If the canvassers had certified the Stand Up for Democracy petitions, the law would have been suspended pending the outcome of a November vote. But as of now, the law remains in effect.

The state has appointed emergency managers to run the cities of Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint and Pontiac. Emergency managers run school districts in Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights.

Email Tim Martin at tmartin4@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TimMartinMI

DTE Pay Your Taxes! – We Need Clean & Safe Energy! DTE March & Demonstrations! This Is How They Treat Us, DTE & Police! – - A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * *

(More photos, comments coming)

Published on May 4, 2012 by KennySnod

DTE and their shareholders have the power to change the economic condition of our communities by investing in clean energy. Clean energy like wind and solar are cleaner and cheaper than coal or nuclear energy. Almost 80% of our energy now comes from coal, which is linked to asthma, heart disease and cancer! Now DTE wants to build an other $15 billion nuclear plant that would crush Michigan families.

DTE shuts people off 200,000 times every year, including seniors and children! We need to stop the shutoffs, and stop the continuation of investing in dirty, dangerous and risky coal and nuclear.

- – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913
eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
YouTube – I have over 280 community videos and over 88,000 Hits
on my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

Revs. Edward Pinkney and Charles E. Williams II, along with attorney Bruce Hollowell, express outrage after BOC vote April 26, 2012/Photo Leona McElvene

April 27th, 2012 | By Michigan Forward, Repeal Public Act 4

Citizens from around the state of Michigan continue to express outrage in the wake of a decision by Republican appointees at the State Board of Canvassers meeting rejecting expert testimony, physical evidence and scientific evaluation showing a petition to repeal the emergency manager law was in compliance with the legal font-size as required by law.

Attorney Herb Sanders testifies against PA4 takeover at City Council March 13, 2012

“This partisan attack on democracy will not stand,” said Herb Sanders, director of the coalition. “People are outraged at the bold-faced hypocrisy displayed by Republican members of the State Board of Canvassers who rejected expert testimony, physical evidence and scientific measuring means presented to them in favor of affidavits signed by other alleged printing experts that didn’t even bother to show up to the hearing.”

The fact that no experts testified to the legitimacy of claims made that the font size was incorrect calls into question whether the affidavits are little more than pieces of paper signed by “ghost” printers.

PA 4 opponents packed Board of Canvassers meeting April 26, 2012/Photo by Leona McElvene

“No one would be surprised to find that in politics some people are just dirty, lying cheats who will stop at nothing to get their way,” said Sanders. “One thing is for sure, they will show up in court or the masterminds of this scheme will be held accountable in the court of law for their shenanigans.”

The partisan attack came on the heels of news that the Stand Up for Democracy Coalition had officially received notice reporting the group had collected 203,238 valid voter signatures needed to place the repeal of Public Act 4 (aka the Emergency Manager Law) on the November 2012 general election ballot. The group exceeded the 161,305 valid signatures needed by more than 40,000.

AFSCME Council 25 Secretary Treasurer and Michigan Forward leader Brandon Jessup testify at meeting/Photo Leona McElvene

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 the members of the State Board of Canvassers met in Lansing to decide if the petition would be placed on the November general election ballot. They also reviewed a memo from the Secretary of the Board of State Canvassers that largely dismissed the challenges of a republican group seeking to prevent voters from deciding the fate of PA 4.

Republican Board of Canvassers members voted against referendum/Photo Leona McElvene

At the hearing, the font size on the petition was determined to be correct after physical evidence and expert testimony was presented to the board and several hundred citizens in the audience. Still, two republican appointees to the board ignored the evidence before them and voted not to place the issue on the ballot to the outrage and disbelief of other republican, democratic and independent voters attending the hearing. The matter heads to the Michigan State Court of Appeals next week.

For more information go to http://www.standup4democracy.com or call 1-866-306-5168 to volunteer.

 By Richard Hubbard LONDON | Mon May 7, 2012 11:30am BST (Reuters) -

Greek and French election results rattled investors on Monday by undermining confidence in the region’s plans to cut spending and tackle its debt crisis, sending the euro to a three-month low. European shares also traded lower, with Greek stocks down 6.4 percent .ATG, but reaction was muted with the UK market closed for a holiday.

Investors sold the bonds of other weaker euro zone members after the two pro-bailout parties in Greece failed to win a parliamentary majority, rekindling fears over the country’s future in the single currency.

“With the new political situation in Greece, a (euro) exit has become much more possible than before,” said Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING.

In a more widely expected result, French Socialist candidate Francois Hollande claimed the presidential seat from Nicolas Sarkozy, increasing concerns that his government may try to weaken a German-led austerity drive across the region.

The signs of a renewed political crisis in Europe came just as Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report dealt a heavy blow to hopes of recovery for the world’s largest economy, sparking a widespread selloff on Wall Street and on Asian markets.

“The election results at the weekend are not helpful to calming the worries already in the market after disappointing (U.S.) payrolls report on Friday,” said Gerhard Schwarz, head of equity strategy at Baader Bank.

The euro zone’s blue chip index, the Euro STOXX 50 .STOXX50E, opened down 1.1 percent, to 2,222.37, its lowest level all year but later recovered to be off 0.45 percent. The euro hit a low of $1.2955 in Asian trading as the election results become clear but with the key UK market closed, it climbed back to trade around $1.3035, at the bottom of its $1.30-$1.35 trading band seen since February.

PERIPHERAL BONDS HIT

Europe’s sovereign debt markets were most affected by fears over the future of the region’s fiscal austerity policies, with investors fleeing to safe-haven German government bonds. German Bund futures hit record highs of 142.44, up 14 ticks, while investors sold Spanish and Italian bonds. Cash 10-year German yields were 2 basis points lower at 1.56 percent, within a whisker of the record low. Bond investors were expected to keep away from other peripheral euro zone markets in the coming days as they watch efforts to form a ruling coalition in Athens.

(VOD: video below is from last year’s elections in Spain, which unseated the “Socialist Party” there because it had not responded to the suffering of the people. “Socialist Parties” in Europe do not necessarily mean socialist revolution.)

Spain has become the recent focus of the debt crisis and industrial output for March confirmed the economy’s weakness. The government is expected to announce a rescue plan for ailing bank Bankia as part of a wider reform of the banking system, sources said on Monday.

The Spanish 10-year government yield was up six basis points at 5.84 percent but analysts expected it to re-test the psychologically important 6 percent. World equities reflected the sharp falls on Wall Street in the wake of the latest payrolls report and further selling in Asia after the European election results became clear.

The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS fell 0.8 percent to 14-week lows at 319.01 points after Wall Street posted its worst week of the year last week when new jobs data showed U.S. hiring slowed for the second month in a row. U.S. stock index futures pointed to further falls on Monday. The surprisingly weak non-farm payrolls report for April fuelled fears of a drop in energy demand helping send Brent crude oil below $113 a barrel, its lowest level since late January. (Additional reporting by Toni Vorobyova; editing by Anna Willard)

VOD comment: Global banks have no interest in investing in the prosperity of the people, only condemning them to more unemployment, minimal wages and benefits, privatization, and poverty. That is why it is important for people to attend the rally listed in the post below. The BANKS are the enemy of working and poor people world-wide. Whether elected officials can overcome their sovereignty remains to be seen. Only an all-out revolt of the people like that of the Paris Commune, which took over the banks, can win in the end.

Oakland police and May Day protesters face off. Video courtesy of KNTV.

MSNBC  May 1, 2012

Protesters across the world hit the streets Tuesday on May Day to rally against austerity measures and call for higher wages and more jobs.

Marches turned violent in Oakland, where protesters pounded on bank windows and went face-to-face with a police line, and in Seattle, where protesters dressed in black smashed windows and police pepper-sprayed some in the crowds. 

Protesters playing cat-and-mouse with police pounded on windows of banks and other businesses, SFGate.com reported. After surrounding a downtown Bank of America branch, protesters chanted, “Oakland is the people’s town; strike, occupy, shut it down.” they also gathered at a Wells Fargo bank branch. Police later confronted demonstrators marching through downtown. Video by NBCBayArea.com showed at least one protester being dragged away by police.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A group of May Day protesters dressed in black clothes and wearing face makeup smashed windows in downtown Seattle. Video courtesy KING

In Seattle, windows were broken and police arrested a handful of protesters as about 100 marched in downtown, NBC station KING reported. Many marchers were dressed in dark clothes, wearing face makeup and carrying sticks, live TV video showed. Police pepper-sprayed several protesters as problems developed. KING reported numerous tires slashed and large amounts of glass on the ground from vehicles and buildings, including the old federal courthouse, smashed by protesters. Peaceful protesters remained at the downtown Westlake Plaza, where speeches and concerts continued, KING reported.

“Part of me, I want to understand where they’re coming from and then they pull something like this,” said Sam, who would not give his last name, as he saw the back window of his car smashed out by protesters. Sam was on holiday from his home in British Columbia. “I’m from Canada,” he said, “imagine the impression this gives me of the United States.”

Occupy Detroiters marched from old train station to Grand Circus Park

 In the United States, the protests are seen as the biggest test for the Occupy movement since many of its camps were shuttered late last year. Occupiers in more than 100 cities across the country were expected to protest on the day that traditionally celebrates workers’ rights.

“We’ve got hundreds of people out already and I know a lot of people are going to be trickling in as the day goes along. We’ve had pickets at the Bank of America, Chase, Disney,” Mark Bray of the Occupy Wall Street PR team said as protesters in Manhattan chanted “We are the 99 percent” in the background. “(The) mood is very spirited, the rain is lightening up.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

About 1,000 Occupy protesters were based at New York’s Bryant Park. As about 250 protesters left to march on banks after noon, they chanted “Out of the stores, into the streets” and “Banks got bailed out; we got sold out.”

Robby McGeddon, 47, a tech worker carrying a maypole for May Day, said, “There’s too much fear for the general public to actually want to strike. They don’t want to lose their job. … We haven’t reached that tipping point where people are more frightened for some place to live. … It will get to the tipping point but right now we’re just practicing.”

“We’re trying to find new, positive community-building ways to engage and protest and be a part of the burgeoning civil dialogue about what this country should be doing,” said Daphne Carr, 33, co-organizer of the Occupy Music Working Group.

About 300 musicians led a march of about 1,000 down Fifth Avenue to Union Square in Manhattan. The crowd swelled to about 3,000 later in the day as unions reperesenting teachers, transport workers, nurses, musicians and others in lively afternoon of art and music.

Carr said music making “has been eroded from our public sphere so we’re taking and re-claiming the right to play music publicly together in the streets, in the parks without permits, and that it’s a safe and natural part of being a part of the city.”

“Get a job,” one man said as he elbowed his way through the crowd of protesters.

“This is like the resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement,” said photographer Joel Simpson, 65, of Union, N.J., as the “guitarmy” sang “This land is your land” in the background. Though most of New York City didn’t know the May Day protest was going on, he said, the Occupy movement “touches public consciousness in a very broad way and politicians have to at least pay lip service to it.”

Stop The War On Our Youth! – - A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * Stop The War On Our Youth! There’s No Justice In Condemning An Innocent Child to Lift In Prison or Death!

Kenneth Snodgrass is the official videographer/photojournalist for VOD. See is bio on the About page.

Families, friends, and supporters of Davontae Sanford, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Dad Charles Jones, Trayvon Martin. Protest April 23, 2012 at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice

George Zimmerman, killer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is now out on bond, joining Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, killer of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones. They are free to roam the streets, while Davontae Sanford, 14 when he went to prison for murders to which another man confess to, and Charles Jones, Aiyana’s dad, are behind bars.

Davontae’s mother has just now heard from her son for the first time since January. He is being held in solitary and was under barbaric conditions until intervention by his supporters. Charles Jones, still grieving for his daughter Aiyana, killed May 16, 2010, is in the Wayne County Jail without bond based solely on the testimony of some jail-house prisoner. We would like to hear the truth about Davontae Sanford. There No Justice In Condemning An Innocent Child to Life In Prison or Death For A Crime They Did Not Commit! – -

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of From Victimization To Empowerment…
www.trafford.com/07-0913 eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
YouTube – I have over 275 community videos and over 87,000 Hits
on my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

 Families of two men unite to demand their release and the imprisonment of killer cops Joseph Weekley and wannabe George Zimmerman 

By Diane Bukowski

April 26, 2012  

Taminko Sanford (l) and Mertilla Jones (center) discuss their children's cases as Jones' 14-year-old grandson listens April 23.

DETROIT – Families and friends of  Davontae Sanford, 14 when he was  convicted in 2007 of four murders to which another man has confessed, and Charles Jones, father of Aiyana, 7, killed by Detroit police in 2010, rallied together to demand freedom for the two men April 23. 

It was the first time the families of the two young men met. Their grief and anger poured out in chants of “Free Davontae, Free Charles, Justice for Aiyana,” and “Brick by brick, wall by wall, we’re going to fight until we free them all,” as they marched outside the Frank Murphy Hall in downtown Detroit for two hours. 

Davontae's two sisters and father Jermaine Tilmon

“George Zimmerman killed an innocent child for nothing,” said Davontae’s father Jermaine Tilmon. “They just freed him on bond today, but they have had an innocent child locked up for five years. Give Davontae a bond right now. What they are doing is unconstitutional.”

Both Zimmerman, who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in February and  Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley, who shot little Aiyana Stanley-Jones in the head as she slept with her grandmother, are free on bond. Weekley was granted a personal bond after being charged with manslaughter nearly two years later, while Zimmerman’s family raised $15,000 for a 10 percent cash bond. Both killings enraged people across the world.

 Davontae’s 14-year-old sister DeShonda said, “It’s crazy what they’re doing to him. It doesn’t make any sense. We were so close, oh my god, I love him. He is the best brother to me. He is amazing.” 

Taminko Sanford and others in Davontae's family demand justice for all

Sanford’s attorneys have now filed an affidavit with the appeals court, in which Vincent Smothers admitted to the drug house killings of four people on Runyon Street and explicitly exonerated Davontae. (Click on )  Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan refused to let him testify during proceedings on a motion to withdraw Sanford’s confession, obtained by police without the presence of his mother or an attorney. 

Aiyana’s father Charles Jones faces first-degree murder charges in the death of Je’Rean Blake, based primarily on the hearsay testimony of jail-house snitch and six-time convicted felon Jay Schlenkerman. A final conference for their joint trial is set for May 4, with the trial scheduled for June 20, in front on Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt.

Jones family members included Mertilla Jones (behind grandson in red jacket, Aiyana's mother Dominika Stanley, second from left, and Charles Jones' sister LaKrystal Sanders (r)

 “We support Davontae and the family of Trayvon, and all those who are unjustly locked up,” Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones told the marchers, after she and Davontae’s mother Taminko Sanford spoke with each other and tearfully embraced. Jones’ daughter LaKrystal Sanders and Aiyana’s mother Dominika Stanley, along with many youngsters and others from the large Jones and Sanford families, also attended the march. 

Jones family wears T-shirts demanding justice for Aiyana, freedom for Charles

“My grandson is 14, the same age as Davontae was,” Jones said, her arm around his shoulders. “One day you all could be standing in our shoes. We want freedom for our kids.. Someone had the nerve to invite my niece to a benefit for Weekley’s daughters, so that they can live the life-style to which they are accustomed, and go to college. But my son will never have a father-daughter dance with Aiyana, or see her walk across the stage to get her high-school diploma or college degree, or walk her down the aisle to get married.” 

Weekley lives in Grosse Pointe Farms, while the Jones family lived on Lillibridge in a poor east-side Detroit neighborhood. 

Aiyana was Charles Jones’ only daughter of seven children. His mother said police trained guns on his toddlers when they arrested him in his Ypsilanti home earlier this year. 

Charles Jones with daughter Aiyana Stanley-Jones

A Detroit police “Special Response Team” threw an incendiary grenade into their Detroit home before killing Aiyana on May 16, 2010, as A&E’s “The First 48” filmed the assault, although they knew little children were inside then. Jones said they trampled over the toddlers while rampaging through the house, then grabbed Owens’ 15-year-old daughter and made her and her father sit on the blood-soaked couch where Aiyana died.

Police threw Charles Jones in blood and glass on the home’s floor, and arrested Jones herself, holding her for several days. They continue to claim in civil lawsuit proceedings that she “interfered” with Weekley. 

Khalid Fareed Muhammad speaks to families

Khalid Fareed Muhammad called for charges to be brought against the officer who threw the grenade through the window, as well as the rest of the team. That team included Kata-Ante Taylor, who according to Jon Marko of the Fieger law firm, ran with Aiyana out of the home before her family could hold her in her dying moments. 

According to eyewitnesses, Taylor executed 18-year-old Artrell Dickerson in 2009, shooting him in the back as he lay on the ground. He never faced charges. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has not charged a single Detroit cop in the killings of dozens during her tenure. 

A “grand jury” composed of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny brought the charges against Weekley, but it was Worthy who charged Charles Jones. 

Roberto Guzman, on bullhorn, leads march

Roberto Guzman, an organizer of the rally, passionately condemned Worthy’s actions in the Sanford case and others he has been involved in fighting. He ended talk in tears as Taminko Sanders and Mertilla Jones embraced him. 

“Why, Ms. Worthy, do you continue to deny this child justice?” Guzman asked in a portion of his talk, which detailed the history and  constitutional violations in Sanford’s case. “Kym Worthy knows she can stop the appeals process right now by filing a Confession of Error with the Court of Appeals. . . .Obey the principles of due process, a fair trial and the laws of humanity!   . . . .set this child free!  You are committing a greater crime in continuing to condemn him to prison, rob him of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  He will never be able to get a high school diploma, raise a family and live life to his fullest all because her sin is pride. 

Taminko Sanford and Mertilla Jones embrace Roberto Guzman as he weeps after his talk

“Freedom fighter Frederick Douglass said, ‘No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at least finding the other end fastened about his own neck.’  Your crime in condemning this innocent child is enormous; and here again you leave a trail of tears. “ 

(Click on Sanford Speech  to read full speech with history of Davontae’s case.) 

For more information on the cases of Aiyana and Charles Jones, call 313-825-6126; for more information on the case of Davontae Sanford, call 313-272-1406. Davontae also has a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002107776225.

Channel 7: Protesters demand justice in two high profile cases;

Organizers say black men are being targeted

VOD STORY ON RALLY TO FREE DAVONTAE SANFORD AND CHARLES JONES, AND JUSTICE FOR AIYANA STANLEY-JONES AND TRAYVON MARTIN APRIL 23 COMING SHORTLY. Rally was covered in the Detroit News and Free Press (Freep video at bottom) as well as Channel 7 (video above). Channels 2 and 4 ran versions of the following AP story.

DAVONTAE SANFORD CASE: DETROIT HIT MAN TAKES ANOTHER STEP TO HELP CONVICT

Monday, April 23, 2012 4:56 PM EDT

By The Associated Press

Davontae Sanford at court hearing two years ago

DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit hit man in prison for eight slayings has signed an extraordinary confession to four additional killings in a bid to persuade the Michigan appeals court to order his testimony and possibly free a young man who is locked up for murder.

The sworn affidavit by Vincent Smothers was filed last week by a lawyer for Davontae Sanford, who at age 15 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Sanford, now 19, insists his own confession was false, and he has struggled to have his conviction thrown out.

In a three-page statement, Smothers said he was hired in fall 2007 to kill a drug dealer as part of a feud between competing gangs. He said Sanford, a neighborhood kid who was just 14 at the time, was not his accomplice.

Vincent Smothers

“I have never used a juvenile as an accomplice,” said Smothers, who is serving a 52-year sentence for eight other murders.

A few months ago, Smothers offered to testify in court on behalf of Sanford. But in February, Wayne County Judge Brian Sullivan declined and, at the same time, rejected Sanford’s request to set aside his conviction.

Smothers hopes the affidavit — a formal, detailed recollection of what happened on Detroit’s Runyon Street — will make a difference with the appeals court.

“I have nothing to gain by agreeing to testify,” said Smothers, 31. “No one is pressuring or threatening me to testify. I am testifying because Mr. Sanford is innocent of the 4 murders on Runyon Street and should be exonerated.”

Smothers said he and another man, nicknamed Nemo, scouted the location earlier in the day by playing catch with a baseball a few doors away. They returned and starting shooting — Smothers through the front door with an AK-47 and Nemo with a handgun through a window.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy still refuses to stop prosecution of Davontae Sanford or at the very least grant him an appeal bond.

He said they immediately found victims dead on separate couches. Smothers said a young boy was in bed in another room and a woman was hiding under the bed. They were not injured.

“Just after we left the house, I fired my AK at a person across the street, who had fired at me,” Smothers said, a reference to a minister who has admitted firing a gun that night.

In April 2008, Smothers was arrested in suburban Detroit. He quickly admitted participating in 12 murders-for-hire, including the ones on Runyon Street, but was only charged with eight. At the time, Sanford had already pleaded guilty and was in custody.

“At one point during the interrogation, when I was being escorted to the bathroom, I told a bald detective that they did not have the right person convicted for the Runyon Street murders,” Smothers said in his affidavit.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office has refused to back away from Sanford’s guilty plea. But it hasn’t explained why Smothers was never charged, despite the confession to police, and why a gun directly linked to the Runyon Street slayings was recovered from a home associated with Nemo.

When asked about the affidavit, Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for prosecutors, said her office will wait to hear from the appeals court.

Sanford’s attorney, Kim McGinnis, wants the appeals court to overturn the trial judge’s decision and allow her client to withdraw his guilty plea or, alternatively, put Smothers on the witness stand 

Kawhnua Liggins takes her daughter to day care April 24; her D-DHS grant to pay for it has now been cut/Photo ClickonDetroit Channel Four

By Diane Bukowski

April 29, 2012

DETROIT – A union representing Detroit Department of Human Services (D-DHS) workers filed suit April 19, demanding the restoration of millions in federal funds withheld by Michigan Department of Human Services (M-DHS) director Maura Corrigan since Oct. 2011. The suit requests the maintenance of D-DHS’s designation as a Community Action Agency (CAA), and an injunction preventing Wayne Metro Community Action Agency (WMCAA) or any other entity from taking over its programs.

APTE President Dempsey Addison at first Occupy Detroit march in 2011

“As a result of Director Corrigan’s illegal cut-off of CSBG funds to the City of Detroit, the neediest Detroiters are being denied desperately needed services, services which are vital to their very survival,” says the lawsuit. It was filed by Attorney Jerome Goldberg on behalf of Dempsey Addison, President of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees, and DHS employee Cecily McClellan.

(Click on APTE lawsuit and letters to read suit as well as letters from APTE to the federal government.)

D-DHS assists residents in fighting foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs, provides food, clothing, day-care and transportation, and helps fund non-profits like Young Detroit Builders. It also ran the city’s home weatherization program, which was turned over to WMCAA April 1, with hundreds of workers and contractors left unpaid, and work on homes unfinished.

Funding for the city’s Head Start Program, amounting to $55 million, which D-DHS coordinates through contractors, is being transferred as well.

Detroit Head Start program; funding transferred from D-DHS

Kawhnua Liggins, who was taking her toddler to a day care program, told Channel Four reporter Paula Tutman April 25 that she needs the grant D-DHS provides. Tutman reported it had been cut the day before and that three-quarters of the families at the day care center have lost their grants beginning last fall.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing gets hug from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who now controls him and city's government.

“If I don’t have that money, I could lose my job,” Liggins said. “Jobs are bad right now, so I only work part-time. Child care is every bit of $150 to $200 a week, and my check is only $120 a week. I can’t afford to pay rent and my other bills on top of child care.”

Council President Charles Pugh told Tutman that funds were cut due to alleged mismanagement, but was not quoted regarding the letter City Council sent to the state refusing to voluntarily de-certify D-DHS. (Letter is attached to lawsuit PDF referenced above.)

(Click on http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Detroit-families-say-they-re-struggling-after-state-cuts-funding-to-human-services-department/-/1719418/11860610/-/o703bo/-/index.html to view full broadcast.)

Mayor Dave Bing, who now reports to the state under the recently enacted “Financial Stability [Consent] Agreement,” announced in his April 12 budget address that he would cut off all funding for D-DHS in the coming year.

Debra Taylor at earlier meeting of Detroit Financial Review Team

“Michigan has become up South, the new Jim Crow,” Debra Taylor testified during a state administrative hearing April 23. “You can’t just dress this pig up and put perfume on it. Turning over D-DHS has nothing to with the city’s deficit or with mishandling of funds. It is racism, another power grab along with the illegal Public Act 4 takeover of Detroit.”

The suit requests a temporary restraining order and writ of mandamus (to compel a government officer to perform a duty) against defendants Corrigan, Mayor Dave Bing and Kirk Lewis. A hearing is set for Friday, May 11, 2012 at 9 a.m. before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen McDonald in the Coleman A. Young Center, 2 Woodward Avenue, Rm. 1507.

The suit says laws a review of any proposed termination of funds must be completed at both the state and federal levels BEFORE funds are cut-off. It challenges the state’s assertion that D-DHS has been responsible for massive misuse of funds. D-DHS workers face lay-offs this June as a result of the allegations. (Click on DHS Closing for documents APTE gathered containing favorable state D-DHS audits under Stacie Gibson, former director of the Michigan Bureau of Community Action and Economic Opportunity.)

“The state violated federal guidelines and the legal process when it withheld $8 million over six months ago,” lawsuit plaintiff Addison testified at the April 23 hearing. “It hurt thousands of Detroiters by cutting off essential services. What right do you have to sit here like a judge and mislead the people?”

D-DHS Commissioner Tia Comart speaks at state hearing April 23; Stephanie Comai is at right on judge's bench

Stephanie Comai, Acting Director of the Bureau of Community Action and Economic Opportunity, and an M-DHS employee, presided over the hearing in a State Court of Appeals (COA) courtroom in the Cadillac Building. She and two others sat at the bench normally used only by COA judges.

The little-publicized hearing was a step in adversarial proceedings brought by the state subsequent to the Detroit City Council’s earlier vote against voluntary termination of D-DHS’s CAA status. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/06/corrigan-demands-council-hand-over-control-of-city-dhs/  for earlier VOD article.)

Detroiters who opposed takeover of D-DHS at hearing April 23.

Mayor Dave Bing previously told the state the “city agreed” to the voluntary termination, but statutes require that the City Council also sign off.

Dozens of Detroiters who testified April 23 demanded copies of the state’s “comprehensive monitoring report” recommending de-certification of D-DHS and its specific reasons for doing so, which was not provided at the meeting. Comai referred to it in a March 23, 2012 letter to D-DHS director Ursula Holland, attached to the APTE lawsuit.

The lawsuit says such a report must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but “on information and belief, a report in conformance with [federal law] stating the basis for such a determination has not been prepared and submitted.”

Comai said she would send a copy to those who requested it at the meeting, including this reporter, but it has not yet been received.

WMCAA President Jodi Adamovich, board member Thelmas Chonko, CEO Louis Piszker, who operates for-profit Thornton Park LP out of WMCAA Ecorse office

Comai said M-DHS plans to temporarily turn D-DHS programs over to the Wyandotte-based WMCAA, while issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) open to non-profits which will be “a high-performing effective service operators.” She said WMCAA would be opening offices in Detroit shortly to resume services that have been cut off.

Precinct Delegate and former Detroit School Board Member Marie Thornton challenged Comai’s statement that D-DHS is the ONLY one of 30 CAA’s in the state with compliance problems.

“You said the 29 other agencies are perfect,” Thornton declared. “Well, tell me about the 29 perfect agencies so I can say to Detroit, ‘Shame on you.’”

Precinct delegate and former Detroit school board member Marie Thornton at earlier meeting

She asked whether Comai would open an investigation into corruption at WMCCA. Testimony was given that WMCAA’s CEO Louis Piszker runs a for-profit real estate company, Thornton Park Limited Partnership, out of WMCAA’s Ecorse office, and that WMCAA sold a property to his business for $10. Confronted with an increasingly hostile audience, Comai reluctantly said she would.

Several speakers asked Comai why she is not investigating Mayor Dave Bing as well, since he directed former D-DHS director Shenetta Coleman to use $400 million in federal grant funds to help pay off the city’s $1.5 billion Pension Obligation Certificates (POC) debt, as well as to fund construction of new offices for D-DHS at the Herman Kiefer Health Complex on Taylor. (Click on lawsuit)

Several of the Department’s elected Commissioners testified angrily that they had not been consulted by the state about the proposed action, as required by state law. The failure to do so is also cited in the APTE lawsuit.

Les Little speaking at City Council hearing on consent agreement

Comai said they had spoken with the commission chair, but Commissioner Tia Collette Comart said the chair is appointed by the Mayor and has not shared any information with the rest of the commission.

“I am the first chair, and am in an elected position,” she said. “No one said anything to the first chair, the second chair, only to Mayor Bing. “I am a Head Start parent and assistant secretary for Hartford Memorial’s Head Start program and I object to this attack by the state. ” She gave her email address in testimony, which is commissionertia@gmail.com.

Commissioner Carolyn Thompson said, “Detroiters’ voter rights are being trampled. I am insulted that I am being asked to re-apply with the new CAA for a position to which I was already elected. The City of Detroit is ravaged by poverty, but now you are cutting residents off of utility assistance and other vital services.”

Michigan Auditor General Thomas McTavish

“It’s time for Detroit to do what a bunch of patriots did in the 1700,’s” said Les Little. “We have been under assault from the State of Michigan since Public Act 4 and the consent agreement. Time and time again services we pay taxes for have not been rendered to our people.”

Several speakers challenged Comai because M-DHS itself was cited by State Auditor-General Thomas McTavish for a lack of financial controls and millions of dollars in questionable purchases, in an August 16, 2011 audit.

The audit revealed that the same employees created and processed invoices and then approved the checks to pay them. McTavish also found a lack of documentation for purchases of computers and other electric applicances allegedly provided to M-DHS clients, among other issues. For further information, click on http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/08/dhs_audit_finds_millions_in_qu.html.

By Lawrence Porter

http://www.wsws.org
April 27, 2012 

Over 200 students at two high schools in Detroit’s southwestern neighborhood, Southwestern High and Western International, walked out of class on Wednesday to protest the closure of Southwestern, the poor conditions at Western, and the growth of charter schools.

Students from Western said they walked out of school just before 11 a.m. in sympathy with the students at Southwestern High School, which is among nine schools slated for closure next year in the Detroit Public Schools district.

Natalie Rivera/WSWS photo

“Our walkout at Western was inspired by the walkout at Southwestern and it was in solidarity with it, but it was also against the conditions in our school system,” stated Freddie Burse, one of the leaders of the walkout.

Freddie said the students organized the event themselves via Facebook after a student heard that there was going to be a walkout at Southwestern.

“The purpose of the demonstration was to make our voices heard and to speak up on our education system because we feel there are a lot problems there,” continued Burse.

“We are also opposed to the growth of charter schools. The main one here is Caesar Chavez. The privatization of schools is the death of the school system.”

Several students said they were especially upset with the announcement that Southwestern High School would be closed next year.

Denby High students Anjanette Payne, 16; Zana Davis, 17; Marquita Kennedy, 16 and Tamara Hollis, 17. “As a senior, I feel it’s not just about me, it’s about other kids too,” said Davis, one of the organizers of the boycott. (Laura Phelps / The Detroit News)

“It’s about trying to save Southwestern High School,” stated Natalie Rivera, a junior at Western, as she and several hundred students gathered in Clark Park with students from her school and Southwestern. “We are tired of the closing of the schools. We want them to stop.

“Southwestern students walked out so we felt we should walk out in solidarity. We want all of the schools to join together,” continued Rivera. “We don’t even have proper books in the school. We have to learn with old stuff that is not updated. The teachers take their own money to pay for the stuff we need.”

The walkouts at Western International and Southwestern are the third student walkouts in the last month in Detroit.

Denby High students Anjanette Payne, 16; Zana Davis, 17; Marquita Kennedy, 16 and Tamara Hollis, 17. “As a senior, I feel it’s not just about me, it’s about other kids too,” said Davis, one of the organizers of the boycott. (Laura Phelps / The Detroit News)

Last month students at Denby High school walked out after the announcement that the school will be placed in the new statewide district for what are being billed as low-performing schools—the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). Another spontaneous protest took place at Fredrick Douglass Academy when 50 students walked out because they did not have teachers. After protesting that they wanted an education, the students were suspended for a day.

The Detroit school system has been decimated by the actions of a series of Emergency Managers—state-appointed directors that take over a school district in financial distress, that have been appointed by both Democratic and Republican governors—the systematic defunding of the system by state and federal administrations and the collapse of city property tax revenues, the archaic basis of public education funding in the US.

Avontae Latham/WSWS photo

The present Emergency Manager, Roy Roberts, appointed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, is implementing the closure of Southwestern. Roberts, a former General Motors executive, has outlined a plan to model a new school district dominated by charter schools similar to the New Orleans Recovery School District created after Hurricane Katrina. The charter school policy is in line with President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top educational initiative.

Avonte Latham, a junior involved in the walkout, said the government should provide more financial assistance to the Detroit school district. “I feel Michigan needs to give more money for schools. This is holding things back by closing schools,” charged Avonte.

“I don’t think they should be closing schools every year. They are forcing people to leave Michigan. When they decided to close Southwestern HS we decided to take a stand. Enough is enough. They are taking the schools out of the DPS system and putting them in a new system. It’s not right.”

Gabriela Alcazar/WSWS photo

Several students and their supporters said the closure of Southwestern would have a major impact on the choices for schools next year. Gabriela Alcazar, a community activist who attended the protest, said the students at Southwestern have been given two choices for schools that will only make matters worse.

“If Southwestern is closed the student will either go to Western or Northwestern,” stated Alcazar. “Southwestern is already overstretched with 1,700 students. Northwestern is 15 miles away.”

The author recommends:

Detroit schools manager names schools to close this fall
[10 February 2012]

Jerry White campaigns in Detroit against school closings
[14 February 2012]

Detroit school czar targets 15 schools, 600 teachers
[21 March 2012]

School districts throughout Detroit area face cuts
[18 May 2011]

STUDENTS SUSPENDED IN WALKOUT HOLD FREEDOM SCHOOL 

Students protest in Clark Park, across the street from Western International High School in Detroit Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Students suspended for the action are now planning to hold a "freedom school" in the same pa

By David Sands

April 27, 2012 

Students suspended for walking out of class at Detroit’s Western International High School earlier this week to protest school closures and demand a better education, are holding a “freedom school” Friday in Clark Park, across the street from their official school building.

Students left class Wednesday morning to protest the closing of Southwestern High School, which many fear would lead to overcrowding at Western, and to demand more resources and greater teacher engagement for the district’s schools.

Southwestern’s nearly 600 students will be offered space at Western International and Northwestern high schools next year, according to the district.

Detroit school board member Elena Herrada waiting to testify against consent agreement at Detroit City Council meeting April 2, 2012

Detroit Board of Education member Elena Herrada told the Detroit News that up to 180 students were suspended from Western and Southwestern high schools following Wednesday’s action. Detroit Public Schools spokesman Steven Wasko told The Huffington Post about 100 students were suspended for five days following the walkout.

School officials at Western did not return repeated requests for comment.

Wasko said concerns about a potential lack of supplies at Western are unfounded. “Western was one of the schools with top scholarships awards, coming in after Renaissance and Cass” high schools for the 2010-11 school year, securing more than $13.9 million in grants and scholarships.

One Western student told The Huffington Post she could be facing more than a suspension. Raychel Gafford, 17, said she has been singled out by school authorities for her vocal role in the walkout and that the district’s police have indicated she may face unspecified charges.

Gafford said students are organizing the freedom school for the same reasons they walked out. “We’re sticking together and we’re not backing down from this,” she said. “We were thrown out of school for fighting for an equal education and we’re doing this to show we’re still going to be learning even if we got kicked out of school.”

Classes at the freedom school will be held with help from community volunteers for the duration of the students’ suspensions, including over the weekend.

Greg Pratt posted this photo with an account of the Freedom School on its Facebook page

A Facebook page promoting the freedom school puts the number of participating students at more than 150:

We do not understand why we are being punished with a loss of educational opportunity when that is exactly what we were fighting for. To further demonstrate our commitment to education, we will be attending our own school taught by ourselves and community educators for the duration of our suspension.

Gafford said the freedom school would cover a number of subjects, including the history of the civil rights movement, hip-hop, and art classes, and that space would be provided for students to make up missed class work.

Raychel’s mother, Amber Gafford, 34, said she supports her daughter and other students fighting for a quality education.

“I wish there were more kids doing this,” she said of their decision to walk out. “The children, they aren’t doing it to be malicious to the school. They have a reason they’re doing it. Their voices should be heard.”

The freedom school is the latest in a series of recent student actions at Detroit schools.

Around 50 students were suspended March 29 after leaving their classrooms at Frederick Douglass Academy to protest the school’s shortage of teachers. And hundreds of students marched in front of Denby High School on March 16 to protest their school’s transfer into a new state-run district.

Below is WSWS video of parents protesting former DPS EFM Robert Bobb’s firing of Western High School principal.

We Pay Our Taxes! Why Doesn’t GE! – - A No Struggle, No Development Production!   By Kenny Snodgrass

Thousands of citizens marched at the GE Annual Shareholder Meeting in Detroit Michigan on April 25, 2012 at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance. Marchers came to demand that GE “Pay Their Fair Share Of Taxes.” They marched on East Jefferson and on the river front side as well. About two dozen shareholders were escorted out of the meeting, after standing to make their demands heard. They included Pastors William Rideout, Homer Jamison and Walter Starghill of Detroit and Inkster. The Free Press reported that GE Vice Chair and Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said “We pay our taxes.” GE paid $2.6 billion in taxes to the USA last year, but they were offset by tax breaks, according to the marchers.

  *A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of From Victimization To Empowerment…

www.trafford.com/07-0913  eBook at www.ebookstore.sony.com

 I have over 275 community videos and over 87,000 Hits
on my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/KennySnod  

GE protesters packed East Jefferson curb to curb April 25, 2012

By Diane Bukowski

 April 26, 2012 

Youth participated in protest en masse

DETROIT – Thousands of  marchers, many of them Black youth, union members and church leaders, occupied the streets of downtown Detroit for several hours April 25 outside General Electric’s national shareholders meeting at the Renaissance Center. 

They chanted non-stop, “GE, pay your taxes” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, corporate greed has got to go!” They came from metro Detroit, and from all over the Midwest in busloads, including Wisconsin and Ohio. 

Leaders skillfully coordinated the mass occupation of the streets, keeping the marchers in solid blocs behind the RenCen, where they were supposed to remain, and then down the side streets onto East Jefferson and up to the front doors of the RenCen. Despite threats and shoving by Detroit police on horseback and in dozens of cars, they were not able to make arrests. 

Protesters round the side of the RenCen to confront GE at front

Pastors William Rideout, Homer Jamison and Walter Starghill from Detroit and Inkster led the occupation after disrupting the shareholders’ meeting inside.  They tried to present GE CEO Jeff Immett with a bill for $26.5 billion, which they said the company owes the U.S.  in back taxes based on the 35 percent statutory rate. 

A GE spokesman said the company paid $2.9 billion GLOBALLY, but had its tax rate reduced due to falling sales in previous years. 

Many of the protesters have occupied DTE's headquarters as well.

The three pastors, along with Good Jobs Now! and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have also led militant occupations of DTE Energy’s downtown Detroit headquarters, again with large contingents of Black youth. A group of young women carried letter placards spelling out “D-T-E” during the march. 

Youth celebrate the rising of the 99 percent against GE

In a city where many youth have lost hope for their future, the numbers participating in the GE protest were astonishing. They danced and chanted, excited to be fighting the real public enemy, instead of each other. 

“This affects me,” said Jataveyis Price, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He carried a sign calling GE a tax dodger. “The youth could have education, jobs and health care by getting all these tax dodgers out and fixing our deficit.” 

Jataveyis Price

GE is known for moving its plants overseas to take advantage of low wages, leaving hundreds of thousands jobless in the U.S. 

Jerome Jackson, who is fighting the foreclosure of his home in Inkster, came in his wheelchair. 

 “If GE paid their fair share, it could be used for bringing our city out of the red and into the green.” 

Jackson has another hearing pending June 7 at 2 p.m. in 22^nd District Court, and is being supported by Moratorium NOW!, Occupy Detroit, and People Before Banks, who have rallied outside his home. 

Charles Whitmore is the regional coordinator for MoveOn.Org, representing western Wayne and Oakland Counties. 

Charles Whitmore and Chuck Altman (l), Jerome Jackson (r)

“GE is a criminal for not paying its fair share,” Whitmore said. “They are holding up the economic recovery with their tax breaks, along with the subsidies that the oil companies and other corporations get. Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations are people, they need to become good citizens. It’s so ironic that the corporations could actually make more money by cooperating with the people instead of laying them off and foreclosing on them, because they would have more customers. “ 

Chuck Altman added, “GE is a major defense contractor, with contracts from the Pentagon for equipment like jet turbine engines. This country needs more butter, not more guns.”

Carrying signs proclaiming, “Windmills not Weapons,” Carolyn Doherty and Charlotte Kish explained, “GE also makes machinery for nuclear reactors, which are unsafe at any price.” 

JOBS NOW!

Marchers wearing purple SEIU T-Shirts were everywhere. Chris Michalakis, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, said the planning committee for the march included the United Auto Workers (UAW) and other unions as well. 

However, no signs from the UAW, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and other major unions were in evidence. 

Tax the 1% for Health Care

Before the march, the daily media including Nolan Finley of the Detroit News blasted the protesters’ plans.

“. . . there’s a real risk . . . investors will witness instead a confirmation that Metro Detroit is ground zero for the destructive war against wealth and business,” Finley proclaimed April 22. “Groups tied to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the United Auto Workers’ 99% Spring action SWAT team have been recruiting protesters to stage an anti-World Trade Organization-style protest in the streets around the RenCen.

“But if massive numbers of raucous demonstrators disrupt the GE meeting, it will be a disaster for Detroit,” Finley continued. “Other business gatherings will avoid the city like the plague, hurting the convention business and killing jobs. More broadly, it will affirm that Detroit is still in the clutches of militant unions, hostile to business and a lousy place to plant money.”’

Pastor leads prayer at front of RenCen; if pastors can organize the people, why can't union leaders?

The News later reported that UAW President Bob King was re-considering his union’s participation. 

SEIU was in the house: where were the other unions?

Despite the recent disastrous state takeover of Detroit, and the cut-offs of hundreds of thousands of state residents from public assistance, many major unions have refused to call on the economic clout still held by Michigan workers. So far, leaders have refused to declare an all-union general strike, like those in Greece which forced the international banks to reduce their demands for that country’s debt payments by 75 percent. 

The only time many union leaders appear to unite is to negotiate contract concessions as a group, despite the fact that such concessions have sapped both the union membership and living and working conditions for people everywhere, since the 1970’s. 

The turnout of thousands, predominantly youth, at the RenCen April 26 shamed  these other unions. Combined with the resources of the major unions, the national 99% movement could eventually triumph against the “destructive war” on working and poor people.

Protesters take the streets behind RenCen, backing off police

By Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World

April 2o, 2012 

What do you do when your municipality is holding arguably the most hated and notorious killer on earth? You grant him bail. That’s exactly what Judge Kenneth Lester did for George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin. As a condition of his bail, Zimmerman is not allowed to have possession of firearms, drink alcohol or use drugs. He must also maintain a curfew. How nice.

Geprge Zimmerman, killer of Trayvon Martin

Zimmerman won’t be released on Friday, but the details of his release are going to be worked out between his attorney and law enforcement. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the killing of Trayvon Martin, but he claims that he shot him in self-defense.

If the city of Sanford wanted to embarrass itself any further, it just did. The justice system that has obtained international prominence as one of the most inept, irresponsible, racist and unprofessional organizations in the country has set a new standard for judicial indecency. The family of Trayvon Martin worked hard to g

Trayvon Martin, murdered by wannabe cop George Zimmerman

et Zimmerman arrested because he was a flight risk, now he’s a flight risk all over again.

Granting bail for George Zimmerman, for the most part, is a slap in the face to those around the world who worked for his arrest. It simply says that without regard to the will of the people, those possessing the power of the state have no obligation to answer to anyone or even share whatever information they are using to come to their illogical decisions. Granting bail to Zimmerman renders meaningless all the rallies, petitions and hard work done around the world to bring him to justice. It effectively communicates defiance within the Sanford judicial system to say, “We don’t care what you think. We’re going to do whatever we choose to do.”

http://www.yourblackworld.net/2012/04/black-news/dr-boyce-why-was-george-zimmerman-granted-bail-in-killing-of-trayvon-martin/

Davontae's mother Taminko Sanford (center), family and friends at 2010 rally

VOD: This travesty should recall to all in Detroit that Davontae Sanford, 14 when he was convicted of four murders that hitman Vincent Smothers confessed to, exonerating Davontae, remains jailed in barbaric conditions at the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia, five years later. Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, who slaughtered seven-year-old Aiyana Jones as she slept with her grandmothers, has been free on bond on manslaughter charges while her father Charles Jones has been charged with first-degree murder based solely on the testimony of a jail-house snitch. So far, he has been denied any bond.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones' aunt LaKrystal Sanders, grandmother Mertilla Jones, and mother Dominika Stanley at national rally against police brutality and murder.

PLEASE COME OUT TO THE RALLY FOR JUSTICE FOR DAVONTAE, AIYANA AND CHARLES MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012 AT 8 AM AT THE FRANK MURPHY HALL OF JUSTICE ON GRATIOT AND ST. ANTOINE. WE WILL ALSO CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN AND THE REMAND OF HIS KILLER GEORGE ZIMMERMAN TO JAIL.

To read VOD stories on the Sanford and Jones cases, please click on: http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/25/davontae-innocent-being-tortured-in-prison-judge-refuses-to-allow-real-killers-confession/ and http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/01/aiyana%e2%80%99s-dad-faces-trial-for-murder-based-on-%e2%80%9cjail-house-snitch%e2%80%9d-jay-schlenkerman%e2%80%99s-testimony/. VOD has extensively covered both cases; for other stories, put “Davontae Sanford” and “Aiyana Jones” in search engine.