Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (center left) leads 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

“Proximity to Power has always been their Dream.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.–assassinated before he could achieve his ultimate goal.

“US Wars Meant to Maintain Unjust Predatory Overseas Investments! Look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the country. This is a role our nation has taken, … refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the immense profits of overseas investments. This is not just. ” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Wed, 08/21/2013

BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford.

The commemoration of the March on Washington has been ruined. President Obama, the global assassin, protector of Wall Street, and reigning Great Mass Incarcerator, will star in the production on the National Mall. “Dr. Martin Luther King serves as a mere prop in the ceremony.” In their embrace of Power, the organizers have desecrated the Black American legacy of struggle. 

For those who seek an independent Black politics that is faithful to the historical Black consensus for peace and social justice, the inclusion of President Barack Obama in the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington is a desecration. The ancestral sanctum is to be utterly defiled by the presence of the very personification of imperial savagery and a ballooning domestic police state.

Of course, the organizers of this monumental self-debasement – this obscene groveling at the feet of Power – see Obama’s participation as the ultimate testimony to Black progress. Proximity to Power has always been their Dream. Dr. Martin Luther King serves as a mere prop in the ceremony, which seeks to draw a straight line from the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, through the 1963 mass march, to the First Black President’s embrace of the 2013 commemoration – a kind of holy trinity.

Barack Obama, “President of the Imperialist United States”–Angela Davis, Detroit, 2012

For the Black Misleadership Class, the great social movement in which Dr. King played such a pivotal role was brought forth, not to confront Power, but to integrate it. President Obama is the perfect blending – the literal embodiment of Black Power, in the warped worldview of the 2013 organizers. Dr. King has no place in this abomination, except to mark the tolling of the bell on his dream to overcome the three evils inherent in imperial capitalism: racism, militarism and materialism.

It is a funereal occasion.

“For those that spent much of the next 50 years jockeying for greater opportunities to join structures of power, there is no shame in hosting the nominal head of Empire at a great public ceremony.”

Not that the actors were so different in 1963. But, back then, the grasping Black classes had not yet been launched on the trajectory that would give them a stake in the imperial order. Their status was still aspirational. Years of tumult would unfold – and Dr. King’s assassination – before the system would deign to offer serious silver to the Judases in his entourage and the larger movement. For those that spent much of the next 50 years jockeying for greater opportunities to join structures of power – the “burning house” that Dr. King feared he was leading his people into – there is no shame in hosting the nominal head of Empire at a great public ceremony. Rather, such an event is the pinnacle of success – especially for folks that imagine they have a special, complexional relationship with His Highness.

Black Panthers–vanguard of the revolutionary struggle in the ’60’s and ’70’s.

It has been so long since the dissolution of the Black Freedom Movement, the pretenders to Black leadership have forgotten how to speak the language of struggle. Non-violent “direct action,” Dr. King’s preferred tactic to “create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue,” has degenerated to mean simply marching down a street on a sunny day.

The 1963 march was not an example of direct action – quite the opposite. The purpose was to gather as many people as possible for an orderly and “dignified” demonstration of the movement’s mass following and broad support – and then get them out of town by sundown, as promised to the powers-that-be. The last thing the organizers wanted was that a quarter million marchers create a “crisis” in the heart of Washington – a scenario that Dr. King hoped to organize in the summer of 1968, but was interrupted by an assassin.

“The pretenders to Black leadership have forgotten how to speak the language of struggle.”

The 1963 march was so accommodating to the Kennedy’s demand for orderliness, Malcolm X dubbed it the “Farce on Washington.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X meet; their goals were not far apart.

“It ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be impatient,” said Malcolm. “In fact, it ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, an outing with a festive, circus-like atmosphere….”

It was also the biggest show of massed humanity in the history of the Nation’s Capitol – which certainly made the intended impression. But, accommodation with Power is not what created the movement that brought the throngs to Washington for the one-day “outing,” nor did strolling in the park carry that movement forward in the ensuing years of confrontation with power.

The 1963 March on Washington was sanitized by the organizers, themselves, whose goal was to impress the nation – including other Black people – with the size and the breadth of the forces the leaders could call on at that point in time. It did not seek confrontation on that day, although its immensity served as implicit warning that masses of people were deeply committed to social transformation, and might not always be so orderly.

“Accommodation with Power is not what created the movement that brought the throngs to Washington.” 

Modern-day battleagainst poverty. Dr. King was assassinated before his next march, the Poor People’s Campaign, took place, to unite poor and working people of all backgrounds.

In that sense, the event on the Mall was quite unrepresentative of the movement. It was, as Malcolm described from the sidelines, “a festive, circus-like atmosphere” – but it also occurred smack in the middle of years of mortal combat with the “system.” When the march is taken out of the context of what happened before and after, all that remains is the “picnic” and the self-censored, deliberately non-confrontational speeches – most notably Dr. King’s vague “dreaming.” Which perfectly suits the needs of today’s Black Misleadership Class, who have no intention of confronting Power – ever! On the contrary, they cling to the garments of Power, in the person of the First Black President, and wrap themselves in the flag of Empire.

Dr. King rejected U.S. empire, and broke with President Lyndon Johnson over the “inter-related” issues of foreign war and and domestic poverty. There is not a shadow of a doubt that King would denounce Obama in the strongest terms, were he alive, today. Yet, those who pose as his political and moral descendants hug the presidential scorpion to their bosoms.

Malcolm’s critique of the 1963 March does not seem so dated if one substitutes the words “Obama” or “Democrats” for “white liberals”:

1960’s hippies though love would conquer all.

“The white liberals [Democrats/Obama] control the Negro and the Negro vote by controlling the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as they [Democrats/Obama] control the Negro civil rights leaders, they can also control and contain the Negro’s struggle, and they can control the Negro’s so-called revolt.”

This August 28^th will be a day of control and containment – amid a love-fest with Power.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Also see, per VOD contributor Jay Janson:

http://kingcondemneduswars.blogspot.com/ 

http://prosecuteuscrimesagainsthumanitynow.blogspot.com/

Homeless woman protests shelters in NYC.

The city plans to forcibly segregate them in the same year it celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. 

By Jason Notte

MSN Money 

August 23, 2013 

http://money.msn.com/now/post–columbia-sc-to-exile-its-homeless

What’s the quickest, easiest — if least effective — way to deal with your downtown’s unsightly problem of homelessness? Making it somebody else’s problem.

Because the city government in Columbia, S.C., apparently cribs its planning for homeless outreach from old episodes of “South Park,” it has decided to get its big push broom out of the garage and just sweep the homeless out of the city center. 

Children protest Tampa tactics against homelessness.

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved the plan, creating special police patrols that would enforce “quality of life” laws involving loitering, public urination and other crimes not necessarily restricted to the homeless population. Those officers would then offer the homeless a choice: Go to jail for their homelessness or be shuffled to a 240-bed, 24-hour shelter on the outskirts of town, which they wouldn’t be allowed to easily leave. 

That second option isn’t jail, mind you, because the homeless are being confined with the help of a local charitable organization. It’s charitable incarceration, you see. The homeless can leave, but they need to set up an appointment and be shuttled by a van. 

And just in case any of the offending homeless get any ideas about doing something crazy like, oh, walking into town, officials plan to post an officer — we can only assume it won’t be Brian Dennehy — on the road leading to downtown just to make sure they don’t walk back and go all John Rambo on the place. 

Homeless man in Detroit rests at base of Mayor Hazen Pingree statute. The plaque on the statue says Pingree was the first to warn of the dangerous powers of the private corporations.

But, hey, it’s cool: That 240-bed shelter should totally hold the 1,518 homeless people currently living in the Columbia area. Besides, the city is partnering with a charity. Surely they’ll be able to make this exile of the homeless work, right? 

Michael Stoops, director of community organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless, told ThinkProgress, the plan is the “most comprehensive anti-homeless measure” he had ever seen proposed “in any city in the last 30 years.” He added: “Using one massive shelter on the outskirts to house all a city’s homeless is something that has never worked anywhere in the country.” 

But there has to be a first time for everything. Maybe this policy doesn’t do anything to make the homeless less homeless. Maybe it doesn’t peek into bigger issues like South Carolina’s 8.1% unemployment rate or Columbia’s 7.9% rate — each higher than the national average. Maybe it doesn’t factor in a state foreclosure rate that ranks among the nation’s Top 10 and far outstrips the national average. 

But a city marking the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement can’t get into trouble for segregating a whole portion of the population from the rest of the city just because it doesn’t like the way it looks, can it? Well, there is that whole “equal treatment under the law” business that applies whether someone is shaking a change cup outside of a Starbucks or not. 

“The underlying design is that they want the homeless not to be visible in downtown Columbia,” Susan Dunn, South Carolina ACLU’s legal director said. “You can shuttle them somewhere or you can go to jail. That’s, in fact, an abuse of power.” 

Good luck with that, Columbia.

Tampa Passes New Law To Toss Homeless People In Jail For Sleeping In Public

By Scott Keyes on July 22, 2013 at 11:30 am

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/22/2335261/tampa-criminalize-homelessness/

Homeless man Anywhere, USA.

If homeless people in Tampa want to avoid jail, they’d better find a place to store their things and a bed to sleep in.

That’s because last week, the Tampa City Council passed a new ordinance, Item #60, allowing police officers to arrest someone they see sleeping in public or “storing personal property in public.” The vote was 4-3.

Advocates are outraged over this new law criminalizing homelessness. Holding signs reading “Sleeping Is Not A Crime” and “Homelessness Is Not A Choice,” many demonstrated outside the Council and testified against the measure, to little avail. A number of the protesters were elementary school children who handed out flyers and asked those passing by, “Where are they supposed to go?”

Homelessness is a major, pervasive issue in Tampa. A 2012 study found that, among mid-sized cities, Tampa and the surrounding area had the highest number of homeless individuals at 7,419.

Homeless family.

Exacerbating the problem is the lack of affordable homeless shelters, much less affordable permanent housing. “Most shelters in the Tampa Bay area charge $10 to $42 per night for a single person. They aren’t free,” Tasha Rennels, a Ph.D. student at University of South Florida, told Bay News 9. Though the City Council acknowledged that shelters in the city are full almost every night, they didn’t include any additional funding for new shelters or housing to go along with Item #60.

Tampa isn’t the only city taking on new anti-homeless measures. Last week, a Miami City Commissioner began an effort to throw homeless people in jail who were caught engaging in life-sustaining activities in public, such as eating and sleeping.

City retirees and their supporters joined in protest called by AFSCME Council 25 outside federal courthouse where bankruptcy hearings are being held, on Aug. 19, 2013

City retiree, pension funds object to “Forbearance Agreement”

Hearing set for Tues. Sept. 4 at 10 a.m. before Judge Rhodes 

Hundreds protest banks’ role in devastation of Detroit Aug. 19

By Diane Bukowski 

August 20, 2013 

(Story on bankruptcy eligibility objections will be forthcoming shortly.)

Hundreds protested outside Bank of America offices in downtown Detroit Aug. 19, 2013.. Protest included street theater: here “Judge” Jerome Goldberg convicts “Bankula” of crimes, sentences him to 150 years in prison.

DETROIT – Eye-opening objections filed in the City of Detroit’s bankruptcy case Aug. 16 allege that Detroit creditors UBS AG, SBS Financial Services, and Bank of America may have been guilty of criminal activity related to the $1.5 Pension Obligation Certificates (POC) loans to the city in 2005 and 2006, and related interest swaps. 

They also say those banks are continuing to rob the city through a “Forbearance Agreement” reached July 15, 2013, which is subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr earlier boasted that this agreement will release the city’s casino tax revenue of $11 million a year, held as collateral to pay off the POC debt. 

Gov. Rick Snyder, EM Kevyn Orr at press conference re: bankruptcy July 19, 2013.

“Detroit has been working its way to a level of insolvency for decades,” Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said while announcing the bankruptcy filing July 18. “Part of the reason we’re here is that in 2005 and 2006, Detroit borrowed $1.5 billion to provide a solution for pension obligations, then hedged those with swap agreements for which we paid hundreds of millions. We went into default on those agreements in 2009 so we doubled down and pledged the city’s casino revenues to support the agreements. For some time, Detroit has simply not been on a sustainable footing.” 

Orr claims that debt is part of an outstanding $3 billion the city owes its pension systems, although they are not a party to the transactions involved and objected strenuously to the issuance of the POC bonds. Then City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail termed POC’s “one of the seven deadly sins of municipal finance.” 

Protest outside federal courthouse against bankruptcy Aug. 19, 2013.

City retiree David Sole, the city’s pension funds, and other creditors including insurer Syncora, Inc., have filed objections to “the Forbearance Agreement,” which  would allow the city to pay the banks involved 75 cents on the dollar on swaps related to the debt, in return for the “release” of $11 million a year in casino tax revenues held hostage to ensure the city’s payments on the POC debt. 

A hearing on the objections is set for Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2013 in front of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. 

City of Detroit retirees came out in force for courthouse protest Aug. 19, 2013.

The objections by Sole and the pension fund allege that the agreement will cost the city hundreds of millions more than what the discount saves. Despite the bankruptcy’s stay on debts, the city has continued to pay UBS and its partners on the swaps, Orr earlier admitted during a press conference July 19. 

“The Interest Rate Swaps on Pension Obligation Certificates entered into by the City of Detroit with UBS and SBS/Bank of America constitute a drain of hundreds of millions of dollars to the banks from the City’s budget with nothing positive for the City in return,” Attorney Jerome Goldberg writes in the Sole objection. 

“Basically, the Interest Rate Swaps obligate the City of Detroit to pay UBS and Bank of America 6.323% interest on $800 million in bonds, when the actual rate on the bonds is only 0.6056%. The banks, who on information and belief presented this ‘deal’ as a beneficial one for the City, pocket the difference between the interest paid to them and the actual interest rate on the bonds, as clear profit, amounting to at least $45.1 million according to Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s May 12, 2013 Financial and Operating Report.” 

Numerous UAW members were part of protest at Bank of America Aug. 19, 2013.

The objection notes that UBS and Bank of America have both been charged with fraudulent practices related to municipal bonds, and are implicated in the global LIBOR and ISDAfix scandals. The two banks and many others allegedly rigged interest rates set by LIBOR (the London Interbank-Offered Rate panel) to benefit themselves and their clients. They have also been charged with rigging the ISDAfix, which affects calculations of termination fees associated with interest rate swaps. 

Three UBS municipal bond executives were recently sent to prison, along with two others in LIBOR-related activities. A former Bank of America executive has also been indicated for municipal bond fraud. 

UBS. Bank of America, others devastated Detroit with foreclosures, said protesters outside BOA Aug. 19, 2013.

 “In addition, both Bank of America and UBS, as documented in countless lawsuits and consent judgments with the federal government and state governments including Michigan, and UBS were major subprime lenders and participants in the illicit mortgage activity that precipitated a virtual financial collapse in 2008, and that especially implicated cities with large African-American populations like Detroit,” Goldberg writes. 

“The financial crisis that precipitated this Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing was in large part a result of the effects of predatory lending by the banks against the residents of Detroit, which resulted in tens of thousands of foreclosures in the city, a massive population decline and a precipitous decline in property values.” 

All ages turned out for bankruptcy protest at courthouse Aug. 19, 2013.

The objection attaches a copy of a lawsuit filed by the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System against financial institutions including UBS, “for losses suffered as a result of being sold allegedly fraudulent mortgage securities.” 

Both Sole and the city’s pension funds, represented by Attorneys Robert Gordon and Shannon Deeby of Clark Hill, allege that the Forbearance Agreement includes no information necessary to assess its alleged benefits to the City. 

(L to r) Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, SBS rep Bill Doherty, Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings, Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poors, and Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams press for $1.5 POC loan from UBS, SBS at City Council table Jan. 31, 2005./Photo by Diane Bukowski

“. . .the Assumption Motion is devoid of material information necessary to assess the benefits of the Forbearance Agreement,” write Gordon and Deeby. 

They say the motion fails to explain “(i) whether a valid termination event exists . . . .that necessitates the Forbearance Agreement in the first instance; (ii) whether the Swap Counterparties’ asserted prepetition liens validly extend to Casino Revenue generated postpetition; (iii) what claims, obscurely alluded to in paragraph 47 of the Assumption Motion, may exist to challenge the validity of the Swap Contracts and liens, which claims are being waived; and (iv) by what means the City intends to obtain funds likely in excess of $200 million in the next roughly 2-6 months to effectuate an Optional Termination.” 

“Summer of Solidarity,” which is visting 13 cities across the U.S. to combine forces, participated in Bank of America protest Aug. 19, 2013.

Paragraph 47 of the city’s proposed Forbearance Agreement says in part, “Further, while the City has examined whether there are viable actions to challenge the Swap Contracts or the City’s pledge of the Casino Revenue to secure its obligations to the Swap Counterparties, litigation would be protracted, expensive and, in terms of success, uncertain. The Swap Contracts and related documents are exceedingly complex, as is any determination of the amounts owing and the rights of the parties thereunder. While certain creditors have informed the City of their views on these arrangements, regardless of the merits of these positions, the issues are extremely complicated and, accordingly, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.” 

An obscure sentence in Orr’s “Proposal to Creditors,” issued June 14, 2013 during a meeting at the Detroit-Wayne County Airport,  also says, ‘The City has identified certain issues related to the validity and/or enforceability of the COPS that may warrant further investigation.” 

VOD editor Diane Bukowski (second from left) questioned Orr after he presented Proposal to Creditors at airport June 14, 2013. WWJ’s Vickie Thomas is at left.

Asked by VOD during a press conference after the meeting whether he would investigate criminal actions by the banks related to the POC’s, Orr said he would instead investigate the pension funds. The next week, he announced such an investigation.

“Party of Interest Sole believes that if the City of Detroit’s Emergency Manager exercised his statutory mandate under PA 436, Section 16, to conduct a criminal investigation of activities of the swap counterparties . . .the City of Detroit may have been in a much better position to negotiate with the banks to resolve the interest rate swaps which have cost the City tens of millions of dollars in desperately needed revenues and which will cost the City hundreds of millions more, even under the forbearance agreement which the City seeks to implement,” writes Goldberg.

UAW worker in protest outside Bank of America Aug. 19, 2013.

He suggests that Orr should invite the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate the City’s bonds with UBS and Bank of America, noting that UBS already entered into an SEC judgment “relative to illicit activity involving the City of Detroit Water Department bonds.” 

“Emergency Manager Orr could also invite the SEC to intervene in this bankruptcy proceeding pursuant to Section 1109(a) of the Bankruptcy Code which is incorporated into Section 901. The SEC could bring the expertise and information gained by their extensive examination of illicit activity in the municipal bond markets into this Chapter 9 proceeding. Interested Party Sole and several other City of Detroit retirees have taken the initiative to enlist the support of United States Senator Carl Levin in prompting SEC involvement in this case,” writes Attorney Goldberg. 

Attached to the motion is a letter sent by retirees to Levin, who headed a Senate Judiciary Panel in 2009 which reported massive fraudulent activity by the global banks, resulting in the economic collapse of 2008. 

Syncora, Inc., which insured payment of the swaps, has also objected to the motion, claiming it was a party to the swap agreements but was not involved in negotiating the Forbearance Agreement. Syncora may have reached a settlement on its objections, according to news reports.

Former Detroit Corporation Counsel and mayoral candidate Krystal Crittendon distributed objections to bankruptcy for protesters to submit Aug. 19. The objections insist that lawsuits against constitutionality of the Emergency Manager law, PA 436, be heard prior to continue of bankruptcy proceedings.

Related documents:

Objection to forebearance DSole JG (exhibits follow below)

FA exhibit 1 Affidavit of David Sole

FA exhibit 2 to 4 UBS article; Senate report on bank crisis; PDD report on foreclosures

FA exhibit 5 DPFRS lawsuit re UBS

FA exhibit C POC debt docs

FA exhibit G LIBOR rate calculations; articles on UBS, LIBOR ISDAfix

FA exhibit L  Articles on UBS, BOA executive jailings; SEC judgment against UBS in DWSD bonds

PFRS – City of Detroit – Objection to Forbearance Agreement – FILED (Pension funds objection)

Bankruptcy objection letter 2 (This is blank bankruptcy objection letter distributed by Krystal Crittendon Aug. 19. She advised that individuals should still file after eligibility objection cut-off date of Aug. 19 because letter alleges not enough time was allowed to file objections. According to Attorney John Philo, the judge in the Stockton bankruptcy case allowed nine months.)

Story is also forthcoming on Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management Forum held Aug 17, 2012. Above is a video showing a snippet of the conference: the people’s fighter Monica Lewis-Patrick speaking.

ONNAMOVE DETROITERS!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE STOP THE THEFT OF OUR PENSIONS COMMITTEE (STOP) AT 313-680-5508; Moratorium Now at www.moratorium-mi.org; Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management at (313) 782-DREM (3736); Detroit Eviction Defense at http://www.detroitevictiondefense.com/, and numerous other groups.

HUNGER STRIKE PROTESTS DECADES OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

JUDGE RULES PRISONERS CAN BE FORCE-FED AS AT GUANTANAMO

Posted on August 19, 2013 by prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

Prisoners in cell in “Secure Housing Unit” at Pelican Bay State Prison, CA.

Supporters of prisoners who are on the 43rd day of hunger strike are expressing outrage at an order signed today by a federal judge allowing strikers to be force fed, disregarding international human rights principles.

“CDCR justifies asking for the order to force feed by claiming that the widespread hunger strike is ‘orchestrated’ by gangs, that the massive participation and support for the demands is coerced and that prisoners have signed ‘do not resuscitate’ directives under duress,” according to Claude Marks of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. “This order violates all international laws and standards and gives the medical director of each prison authority to violate human rights laws instead of reasonably negotiating with prisoners.”

Thousands of prisoners have united to challenge the torture of prolonged isolation, demanding an accountable process to challenge the gang validations that have kept them in security housing for decades.

Continues Marks, “”This approach, much like Guantanamo, sets the US apart from all related international human rights standards.”

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, s/n Ronnie Dewberry, is shown in pictures taken in 2012 and 1988. After over 20 years of refusing to allow prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU to be photographed, administrators relented in the past few months, taking pictures that prisoners can share with their loved ones. Pelican Bay is so remote that many prisoners’ families are unable to visit often, so they treasure a recent photo. – Photo: Adithya Sambamurthy, CIR

CDCR’s $9.2 billion corruption machine vs. Prison Human Rights Movement

 

by Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collective

Aug. 14, 2013 – I would like to reiterate that the Agreement to End All Hostilities, issued Aug. 12, 2012, is significant for all prisoners because CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) has encouraged prisoners in their 33 prisons to not only engage in self-destructive behavior but has also helped heighten racial hostilities – the catalyst for internal warfare, racial warfare and gang warfare – all of which has been magnified inside the prisons and throughout our communities.

Hunger striker supporters displayed photos and quotations from several of the movement leaders, including Sitawa, at the July 13 rally outside Corcoran State Prison. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

We decided to address these contradictions head on by engaging in a dialogue that was meaningful, sincere and honest with each respective entity. We realized that our responsibility was to end actions that were contrary to the growth and development of each and every prisoner. 

We have been attempting to end hostilities for the last 13 years, but the CDCR was not a willing participant in the process. In 2000, we were allowed to get together and work on ending racial and gang riots and to end internal violence.

The CDCR, after realizing that we were successful in our attempts, became very irritable and obstructionist toward our work and proceeded to deliberately sabotage it. During a racial riot in 2000, a young prisoner was murdered by a prison guard. Young prisoners were being murdered in these racial riots; their actions were used by prison guards to justify their being shot for being armed with a weapon – i.e., a makeshift prison knife.

Protests outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown L.A. Monday, July 8, 2013, against solitary confinement in California prisons. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)

Countless prisoners have been murdered in cold blood under the CDCR’s “no warning shot policy.” The prison guards justify killing the prisoners because, they say, they thought they saw a weapon or witnessed one prisoner advancing on another. We consider this to be cold blooded murder. We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving prison guards an excuse to kill prisoners.

We realize that the justification for locking men and women away in solitary confinement on prison gang validations indefinitely while also subjecting us to a military debriefing process as the only way to program out constitute attacks to our physical and psychological well-being. Prisoners can no longer withstand such torture.

This process has led to many debriefings and mentally ill prisoners throughout CDCR: in PBSP-SHU, Corcoran SHU, Tehachapi SHU, Folsom SHU and San Quentin Adjustment Center (Death Row). As people who have suffered under such a brutal, diabolical system, we realize that it is our responsibility to help change the course of violent prison systems that have made their way to our communities.

A pair holds a solitary confinement protest sign outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown L.A. Monday, July 8, 2013, during a protest against solitary confinement in California prisons. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)

Orchestrated activities are carried out by debriefers and collaborators whose sole role is to maintain hostilities and deepen infiltration and entrapments within our communities in association with the law enforcement in the streets.

We had been talking about playing a greater leadership role for the last 13 years throughout the PBSP-SHU, but we were unable to agree collectively due to our isolation. So when powerful entities within the California prison system – Institutional Gang Investigators (IGI), Investigations Services Unit (ISU) and Office of Correctional Safety (OCS) – isolated us together in the short corridor, a super-max SHU, we were able to re-open our dialogue and agreed to ending the blatant attacks that our families, friends and associates were being subjected to – the same attacks that we were being subjected to in solitary confinement.

Guillermo Cuauhtemoc protests outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown L.A. Monday, July 8, 2013, against solitary confinement in California prisons. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)

We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving prison guards an excuse to kill prisoners.

We realize nothing productive can be done to change the current state of our situation, our prison environment, unless we end the hostilities between prisoners and end all racial and gang violence within the CDCR.

We feel that prisoners are the victims of a systematic process that manipulates them through racial and gang violence in order to prevent greater unity.

In solidarity, struggle, love and respect,

Sitawa

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa is one of four members of the PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collective who sit at the negotiating table whenever Gov. Jerry Brown authorizes the CDCR to negotiate the hunger strikers’ demands. Send our brother some love and light: Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (R. Dewberry), C-35671, Pelican Bay State Prison SHU, D1-117L, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.

Chino State Prison, California

STATEMENT FROM THE PRISON MEDIATION TEAM

Posted on August 19, 2013 by prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity

Day 43 – Time to Re-Frame the Debate

It is difficult to be a Mediator in a situation where no “negotiations with terrorists” are allowed to take place. But let’s start with that word “terrorist,” a grossly overused label in our post 9/11 era. It is meant to demonize. It is meant to conjure up fear and loathing. It is meant to justify any level of violence to counter the fear. Yet what we are dealing with in this non-violent struggle to improve prison conditions is a group of well-disciplined prisoners who have been working across their ethnic differences to adopt non-violent, historically grounded methods to focus attention on their grievances. And in between hunger strikes they reinforced their commitment to non-violence by issuing a Call to End Hostilities between so-called gang groups. So “terrorism” has no place in the discussion.

Rally during the first California prison hunger strike in 2011.

Taking a non-negotiation stance is reminiscent of hostage taking strategy. “We don’t negotiate with people who kidnap and hold hostages.” But when the Mediation Team questioned that terminology with the CDCR during the first hunger strike in 2011 we were told “but we are being held hostage by this strike.” Really? The prisoners themselves are bearing the suffering of their action, a hallmark in non-violent tactics. They have no power, except the moral power that the opponent feels as he/she/they confront the suffering of the strikers. All the power rests with the Department to either make the changes that are suggested, stonewall the demonstrators, and/or punish the demonstrators. So far the last two responses are the only ones they have chosen.

The Department claims that the leaders of the strike are forcing prisoners to refrain from eating. Yet every instruction they have issued, in our hearing, says the opposite. People should make their own decisions about whether to go on hunger strike and how long to remain on strike. People with pre-existing medical conditions should think carefully before going on hunger strike. People should accept re-feeding if their bodies are telling them they have had enough. The strike started with 30,000 prisoners and is down to a few hundred. If people were being forced to stay on, they don’t seem to be complying. Could there be some people in the system who feel peer pressure? Certainly. Could there be rogue actors, among the correctional officers or the prisoners, causing problems for people who start eating? Probably. But our Coalition has contact with prisoners and their visitors in institutions throughout the state and believes that a minimum of coercion, if any, is in play here.

A rally organized by LA’s Youth Justice Coalition ushered in a new era for California prisoners – the End to Hostilities – on the day it took effect, Oct. 10, 2012. A prisoner at Corcoran said recently, “The End to Hostilities has opened up a whole new world to us.” Spreading the spirit of solidarity to the streets is critical now that the California prison system has expanded eligibility for indefinite placement in solitary confinement from prison gangs only to street gangs. – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez

What do the prisoners themselves say about what they are doing? Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, one of the four representatives at Pelican Bay said this week, “As people who have suffered under such a brutal, diabolical system, we realize that it is our responsibility to help change the course of violent prison systems that have made their way to our communities… We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving prison guards an excuse to kill prisoners. We realize nothing productive can be done to change the current state of our situation, our prison environment, unless we end the hostilities between prisoners and end all racial and gang violence within the CDCR. We feel that prisoners are the victims of a systematic process that manipulates them through racial and gang violence in order to prevent greater unity.” 

The only way the strike can end without any more participants dying is if the Department begins to see the prisoners as humans, not just as people who have committed crimes, usually decades earlier. Without this breakthrough there will be deaths.

Painting of Cesar Chavez depicts farmworkers who have died due to barbarous working conditions.

But an equally serious problem is that our own humanity is compromised when we demonize “the other,” and dismiss their humanity. Experienced practitioners of non-violence—such as Gandhi or Cesar Chavez—counseled that hunger strikes should only be used to raise issues within one’s community, where the moral imperative being lifted up can be embraced and real change can take place. When the opponent doesn’t feel that human affinity, all may be lost. It is sobering to remember that Cesar Chavez fasted to the point of permanently harming his own health, and died prematurely. We appeal to Secretary Beard and Governor Brown to demonstrate their humanity by making the reasonable changes that are being requested before it is too late. History will hold them accountable for these lives.

On behalf of the Mediation Team,
Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee (415) 565-0201 Ext. 11

Hunger Strike Mediation Team
Dr. Ronald Ahnen, California Prison Focus and St. Mary’s College of California
Barbara Becnel, Occupy4Prisoners.org
Dolores Canales, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Irene Huerta, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee
Marilyn McMahon, California Prison Focus
Carol Strickman, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Azadeh Zohrabi, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children

Call Governor Jerry Brown
Phone: (916) 445-2841, (510) 289-0336, (510) 628-0202
Fax: (916) 558-3160

Suggested script: I’m calling in support of the prisoners on hunger strike. The governor has the power to stop the torture of solitary confinement. I urge the governor to compel the CDCR to enter into negotiations to end the strike. RIGHT NOW is their chance to enter into clear, honest negotiations with the strikers to end the torture.

PLEDGE OF RESISTANCE WEEKLY ALERT!

Take the Pledge of Resistance to Stop Torture in the SHU

Sign the petition to the Governor

Donate

FEDERAL JUDGE GRANTS CALIFORNIA PERMISSION TO FORCE-FEED INMATES ON HUNGER STRIKE

August 20, 2013 01:49 

SACRAMENTO, CA — A US federal judge ruled that state and federal prison officials in California will be allowed to start force-feeding inmates participating in a nearly two-month-long hunger strike, if the prisoners appear to be approaching their death.

The California Department of Corrections, in conjunction with federal officials, requested the permission on Friday, saying they were concerned about the health of approximately 70 inmates who have refused meals since July 8. Roughly 130 inmates across California remain on hunger-strike, protesting the policy of isolating gang leaders and violent offenders in solitary confinement indefinitely. Continue reading →

Protest against City of Detroit and DPS debt to the banks May 9, 2012 in downtown Detroit.

DPS as well as other Michigan cities, school districts face higher bond costs

Aug. 19, 2013/WSJ

Detroit’s public-school system is expected to pay a hefty yield premium as it looks to sell $92 million in debt Tuesday, about a month after the city sent shock waves through the municipal-bond market with its record bankruptcy filing.

Early discussions between potential investors and investment banks marketing the debt suggest the one-year debt could yield around 4.50%. That compares with 0.18% yield on a typical, one-year triple-A rated muni, according to Thomson Reuters Municipal Market Data.

“Detroit’s school system is paying” for the city’s bankruptcy, said Michael Camarella, vice president and senior portfolio manager on the Oppenheimer Rochester municipal investment team, which oversees about $33 billion in munis. “Anything with the name of Detroit or issued in the state of Michigan is facing a [price] discount because of Detroit’s actions.”

He said he couldn’t comment on his firm’s participation in the Detroit school deal, but said “obviously, given the yield, it is an attractive investment.”

Protest against closing of Oakman Orthopedic School in Detroit July 24, 2013.

Detroit’s bankruptcy, filed July 18, has sparked concerns that municipal bonds may not be as safe as many investors once assumed. Kevyn Orr, the city’s emergency manager, has proposed saddling some bondholders with significant cuts as the city looks to restructure more than $18 billion in debt. In the wake of the city’s filing, at least three Michigan local governments have postponed debt offerings, citing the higher interest rates investors are demanding.

While some cities and counties in Michigan may have the luxury of being able to delay their borrowings, Detroit Public Schools has a more urgent need. The district is using the proceeds of Tuesday’s sale, which is being sold through the Michigan Finance Authority, to cover operating expenses for 2013-2014 school year, which starts next month, bond documents said.

Slide shown at Moratorium NOW! meeting on municipal and school debt in Detroit.

Detroit Public Schools is a separate legal entity from the city of Detroit, and the city’s emergency manager, mayor and city council don’t have “any authority over the District,” bond documents said. The debt has a rating of SP-1, Standard & Poor’s second highest short-term debt rating.

Still, Detroit Public Schools have been under state control, under a separate emergency manager, since 2009, given its fiscal distress. Detroit Schools has lost more than 33,000 students, or 40% of its enrollment base, since 2010, according to S&P, as charter schools have become more prevalent and Detroit’s fortunes have dwindled.

The district’s general fund deficit shrank from $283.9 million to $76.3 million, according to its fiscal 2012 audited financials, due in part to a debt restructuring.

Detroit teachers struck for one day in 2001 to attend this massive protest in Lansing against charter school legislation.

Still, investors could be comforted by the fact Tuesday’s Detroit schools deal is backed by a pledge of state aid, which is allocated to pay bondholders before the school district gets its share of the money, said Robert DiMella, co-portfolio manager of the $965.3 million MainStay High Yield Municipal Bond Fund.

Greedy Banker vs. the World game. Banker says Detroit bankruptcy is “opportunity” to rake in more billions.

“The state backing on these bonds is very strong,” said Mr. DiMella, who said his firm would consider purchasing some of the Detroit school bonds. “We do believe Detroit’s bankruptcy is creating a lot of different opportunities but you have to be very careful.”

Detroit Schools’ enrollment could decline as much as 33%, and debtholders should still get paid, according to S&P. The estimated 51,070 students enrolled in Detroit schools for the 2013-2014 school year is down about 250 people from last year, and the district is projecting stable enrollment through fiscal 2016, S&P said.

The state aid pledged to the new Detroit schools debt is protected by state law, according to bond documents. Still, “the enforceability of this lien in the event of a Chapter 9 bankruptcy case of the District…is uncertain,” the documents said. A municipal bankruptcy isn’t currently being considered by the district’s emergency manager, according to S&P.

Protest against Detroit school closures and state-appointed board June 16, 2005.

Detroit schools also has some other outstanding debt backed by its state aid, and those obligations will get paid off before the debt being sold Tuesday would, said Josh Gonze, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, which oversees about $10 billion in munis. State aid to Detroit schools could also be delayed or may decline, because it depends on student enrollment, he added.

Still, the high yield being offered on the school debt could make the risk of holding it worthwhile, said Mr. Gonze, who said his firm was considering participating in the deal. “It’s an enormous amount of yield” that is hard to find on other short-term debt, he said. 

Sent to VOD by
Thomas C. Pedroni

https://sites.google.com/site/thomascharlespedroni/

Protesters sit-down in Cadillac Place lobby June 28, 2012 to demand vote on PA 4, which was overwhelming rescinded. Snyder et al replaced it with PA 436 in the dark of the night..

 Attorneys for plaintiffs in Phillips et al v. Snyder and Detroit NAACP et al v Snyder are studying strategy for court action in response

Police brutality cases, union arbitration proceedings are likewise stalled 

People’s forum on emergency manager Sat. Aug. 17, 9:30 am; rally against EM’s bankruptcy attack on retirees, city assets Mon. Aug 19, 11 a.m.

By Diane Bukowski 

Aug. 16, 2013

Michigan State Treasurer Andy Dillon and Gov. Rick Snyder

DETROIT – In federal court filings, State Attorney General Bill Schuette, on behalf of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Treasurer Andy Dillon, has declared a stay on two federal lawsuits which challenge the constitutionality of Public Act 436, due to Detroit’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing. 

PA 436 is the current Emergency Manager Act which brought Detroit Kevyn Orr, and eventually the bankruptcy case. 

On Aug. 7, Schuette filed a “NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF BANKRUPTCY CASE AND APPLICATION OF THE AUTOMATIC STAY” on cases filed by AFSCME Council 25 Chief Negotiator Catherine Phillips and community and religious leaders, and by the Detroit Chapter of the NAACP, against Snyder and Dillon.  The cases have been pending in U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh’s court since March, 2013. 

In his notice, Schuette refers to the “extended stay” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes granted with regard to lawsuits against Snyder, Dillon and the State Emergency Loan Board.” Phillips et al motion by state to stay pending bc 8 7 13 and NAAACP EM state motion re BC.

Atty. General Bill Schuette (Sieg Heil!)

“Actions taken while this Stay is in effect and/or in violation of this Stay, including proceedings in this case, are void and without effect,” Schuette writes in part. “Under these circumstances, the above-captioned proceeding may not be prosecuted, and no valid judgment or order may be entered or enforced against these ‘certain State entities.’ These certain ‘State Entities’ will not defend against, or take any other action with respect to, the above-captioned proceeding while the Stay remains in effect.” 

Numerous other actions are being stayed as well, including police brutality lawsuits and union arbitration proceedings.  

Rev. David Bullock speaks at right as Pastor Ed Rowe, Attorneys Julie Hurwitz and Butch Hollowell, and Rev. Wendell Anthony listen outside Detroit State Court Of Appeals offices June 20, 2012 after filing motions to demand placement of PA 4 referendum on ballot.

“We are living in a lawless society right now, where courts will not uphold the law or the constitution,” Attorney Julie Hurwitz, one of eight attorneys representing plaintiffs in the Phillips case, said. “As far as we’re concerned, the stay should not apply to our lawsuit, because it does not affect the bankruptcy case nor does it impact the assets of the City of Detroit. At the same time, one could argue that it does affect the case because if our lawsuit succeeds, it would invalidate the whole bankruptcy filing by the emergency manager.” 

She said she and attorneys in the case believe Rhodes’ stay was meant to apply to the three state lawsuits filed by retirees and the city’s two retirement systems in Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie A quilina’s court. 

City consultants Bruce Bennett of Jones Day, EM Kevyn Orr, William Buckfire at creditors meeting June 14, 2013 at airport.

In what has been called a “rush to the courthouse,” Orr filed the bankruptcy petition just minutes before Aquilina was to hear motions to stop Gov. Snyder from approving the bankruptcy filing as it relates to pension benefits protected by the State Constitution. 

Hurwitz said attorneys in both cases are studying appropriate strategies, and will likely object to the applicability of the stay to their cases and ask Judge Steeh to rule on the matter.  She could not say when or whether that will actually happen. 

“He can at least say the part of the case that has nothing to do with the debtor can continue,” Hurwitz said. 

Attorney Herbert Sanders interviewed after former City Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon filed suit against consent agreement (financial stability agreement).

Phillips v. Snyder asks for PA 436 to be struck down not only on behalf of the City of Detroit, but on behalf of all municipalities, school districts and other local entities in the state.   

It asks for declaratory relief holding that PA 436 violates the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights act, and due process rights.

It also asks for injunctive relief preventing “present and future EMs  from implementing or exercising authority and powers purportedly conveyed by Public Act 436,” protecting Detroit union contracts and the powers of local elected officials, and “for liquidated, compensatory, and punitive damages.”

Click on PA 436 lawsuit Phillips et al and NAACP-EM-436-Complaint- for copies of both complaints.

Bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes (r) with mediator Chief Judge Gerald Rosen (l), a member of the Federalist Society.

Attorney Herbert Sanders, another attorney in Phillips v. Snyder, told Rhodes during the first bankruptcy hearing July 24, “There has already been a motion for summary judgment, and arguments have been scheduled [in our case]. It appears that the city is seeking an extension of the stay regarding finances, but pursuant to oral litigation they are seeking relief concerning any litigation that might interfere with city’s rights as a Chapter 9 debtor. Our case should not be included as part of the stay order. It is imperative the issue in our case should be determined before bankruptcy proceedings.” 

Detroit firefighters protest bankruptcy filing July 24, 2013 outside federal court. It endangers their pensions, and they are not eligible for Social Security.

Also during that hearing, Attorney Barbara Paddock, representing the Detroit Firefighters Association, the Detroit Police Command Officers Association, The Detroit Police Lieutenants and Sergeants Association, and the Detroit Police Officers Association, concurred with Orr’s request for the extended stay. 

“We are not conceding the city is eligible to be a debtor,” Paddock said. “We simply believe this court is the proper forum because of the interaction of state and federal law. We want the stay to include members of public safety unions who may be subjected to lawsuits.” 

Meanwhile, firefighters and other public safety workers protested outside. They said the bankruptcy case endangers their retirement, since no federal law protects public pensions. Additionally, they said, they are not eligible for Social Security as are other city workers, because they never paid into the fund. 

AFSCME Local 207 workers on strike at Wastewater Treatment Plant Sept. 30, 2012.

Hurwitz said she represents numerous clients in lawsuits against Detroit police officers, and that so far, every judge has considered those actions stayed as well.

John Riehl of AFSCME Local 207 said Rhodes’ stay has affected grievance procedures in the unions as well. He said Labor Relations have notified union officials that they consider the stay to apply to grievance arbitration, even though not all grievances involve financial matters. 

Schuette earlier issued a much publicized statement that he would intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings to protect public retirees under provisions of the State Constitution. He has filed to intervene, but has not yet introduced any arguments to that effect.

  NEXT BANKRUPTCY HEARING Wed. Aug. 21, 2013 10 am

    Federal courthouse 231 W. Lafayette, Downtown Detroit

                  TOPICS: $1.5 BILLION POC DEBT, RELATED SWAPS,                                MOTION BY ROBERT DAVIS

          STOP THE THEFT OF OUR PENSIONS COMMITTEE 313-680-5508        

MORATORIUM NOW! WEBSITE http://moratorium-mi.org                                                                        

Documents related to Detroit bankruptcy case http://www.mieb.uscourts.gov/

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD 

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: August 15, 2013

The Detroit bankruptcy case has been cast as a contest between bondholders and pensioners that can be resolved only by shared sacrifice.

In principle, we have no problem with that, though in practice, the pensioners’ fair share will have to take into account their extreme vulnerability: Public pensions are not federally insured and many municipal retirees do not receive Social Security.

What we do have a problem with is shared sacrifice that does not seem to apply to the big banks that abetted Detroit’s descent into bankruptcy.

March in downtown Detroit May 9 2012.

Last month, just days before its bankruptcy filing, Detroit reached its first settlement with creditors. The settlement was with UBS and Bank of America, and though the precise terms will not be nailed down until the bankruptcy judge weighs in, Detroit is set to pay an estimated $250 million to terminate a soured derivatives transaction from 2005.

The derivatives, known as interest-rate swaps, were supposed to protect Detroit from rising interest payments on a chunk of its variable rate debt. The banks would pay Detroit if interest rates rose, and Detroit would pay the banks if rates fell. By 2009, both interest rates and the city’s credit rating were falling, forcing Detroit to pay the banks some $50 million a year and to pledge roughly $11 million a month in casino-tax revenue as additional collateral.

Bankruptcy judge

In the settlement, Detroit will keep the casino-tax revenue. It will also reduce its debt load, according to city officials, because the banks have agreed to a discount of as much as 25 percent off what they are owed. But the haircut doesn’t mean that the banks will suffer. They have already made money on the swaps; the true extent of any discount will not be known until the deal is finalized.

This much is clear:

■ The banks’ 25 percent hit is nothing compared with the 90 percent cut to pensions suggested by the city — a cut that would be disastrous in both human and political terms and that the State of Michigan must prevent from happening.

■ Municipal officials are prey for Wall Street. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law called on regulators to establish “enhanced protection” for municipalities and other clients in their dealings with Wall Street, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has not yet completed rules, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s rules are so weak as to virtually invite the banks to exploit municipalities.

Protest against bank bail-out.

■ The special treatment banks receive when debtors are in or near bankruptcy is unfair and economically destabilizing. Detroit’s agreement with the two banks requires court approval, but, in general, swap deals by banks are not subject to the constraints that normally apply in bankruptcy cases; in effect, the banks are paid first, even before other secured creditors and certainly before pensioners. That privilege, dating to the heyday of derivatives deregulation in the 1990s and 2000s, is destabilizing because the assurance of repayment fosters recklessness.

Detroit’s problems are a reminder of broader challenges, identified but still unmet: protecting pensions; protecting municipalities from Wall Street; and, at long last, revoking the obscene privileges of banks that allow them to prosper on the failings of others.

Protesters at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center July 26, 2013 denounce criminal banks.

SWAPS PROBE FINDS BANKS RIGGED RATE AT EXPENSE OF RETIREES

By Matthew Leising – Aug 2, 2013 10:17 AM ET

Bloomberg News

Note from VOD: City of Detroit creditors and home mortgage-holders involved in the probe include Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs,  JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley,  UBS (which loaned the city’s Retirement Systems Service Corporations the disastrous sum of $1.5 billion in a predatory deal), and Wells Fargo.

Most of the banks in this slide from the Moratorium NOW! Coalition are involved in this probe.

Recorded telephone calls and e-mails reviewed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show that traders at Wall Street banks instructed ICAP Plc brokers in Jersey City, New Jersey, to buy or sell as many interest-rate swaps as necessary to move the benchmark rate, known as ISDAfix, to a predetermined level, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

U.S. investigators uncovered evidence that banks reaped millions of dollars in trading profits at the expense of companies and pension funds by manipulating a benchmark for interest-rate derivatives. 

Companies, pension funds and investment firms from CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension, to Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund, use the kind of derivatives at the heart of the ISDAfix probe to hedge against losses or to speculate on interest-rate fluctuations. 

‘Strict Rules’

Michael Spencer

ICAP Chief Executive Officer Michael Spencer said on a May 14 conference call with reporters, “We have very strict rules for our staff who work on the dollar-swap desk. So far, nothing that we have discovered in our internal investigations gives me sleepless nights, and nothing that I’ve heard externally suggests ISDAfix has been tampered with.” 

Recorded telephone calls and e-mails reviewed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show that traders at Wall Street banks instructed ICAP Plc brokers in Jersey City, New Jersey, to buy or sell as many interest-rate swaps as necessary to move the benchmark rate, known as ISDAfix, to a predetermined level, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

Cecily McClellan of Detroit speaks in Benton Harbor in 2011 against Wall Street banks, EM law..

By rigging the measure, the banks stood to profit on separate derivatives trades they had with clients who were seeking to hedge against moves in interest rates. Banks sought to change the value of the swaps because the ISDAfix rate sets prices for the other derivatives, which are used by firms from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to Pacific Investment Management Co., said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. 

That may run afoul of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which bars traders from intentionally interfering with the “orderly execution” of transactions that determine settlement prices. 

The phone calls and e-mails emerging since Bloomberg News first reported in April on the rigging of ISDAfix add to growing evidence that banks have gained financially by distorting key financial gauges in world markets on everything from interest rates to currencies to commodities. 

Million E-Mails  

LIBOR scandal only the “tip of the iceberg.”

The revelations show the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark for $300 trillion of securities, may be the tip of the iceberg. The Libor probe has so far led to fines of about $2.5 billion against Barclays Plc (BARC), UBS AG (UBSN) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. (RBS). 

While the indexes under scrutiny are little known to the public, their influence extends to trillions of dollars in securities and derivatives. Britain’s markets regulator is looking into the currency market, where $4.7 trillion is exchanged each day, after Bloomberg News reported in June that traders have manipulated key rates for more than a decade.

As part of the ISDAfix investigation, the CFTC has interviewed more than a dozen traders and brokers since May at Barclays and ICAP, both based in London, and New York-based Citigroup Inc., and plans to talk with people at 13 other banks as it sifts through 1 million e-mails, the person said. Barclays gave the CFTC recorded phone calls, the person said. 

‘Bigger Story’  

CalPERS retirees are under the gun in bankruptcy fillings in Stockton, San Bernandino and other cities in California.

Companies, pension funds and investment firms from CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension, to Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund, use the kind of derivatives at the heart of the ISDAfix probe to hedge against losses or to speculate on interest-rate fluctuations. 

“ISDAfix, more obscure than Libor, has the potential to affect more people’s lives” because it’s used by pension funds to hedge portfolio risks and by most companies or users of fixed-income derivatives, said Jack Chen, a financial consultant in New York who has written about the swaps benchmark and Libor for SFC Associates, a financial consulting firm specializing in litigation matters. 

“In three years, ISDAfix will be the bigger story and could be potentially bigger than Libor in terms of damages,” he said. 

Representatives from Calpers and Pimco didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

 Skyscrapers to Annuities 

Swaps on Detroit’s Pension Obligation Certificates involving UBS and Bank of America will be discussed at bankruptcy hearing Aug. 28, 2013.

ISDAfix is used to value derivatives trades known as swaptions, which are options on rate swaps. The contracts give the holder the right to swap a fixed- for a floating-rate obligation at some future point at a predetermined level. The amount of derivatives underlying swaptions contracts outstanding as of July 26 totaled $29.5 trillion, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. 

ISDAfix rates also help determine everything from borrowing costs on bonds that finance skyscrapers to interest on annuities. The benchmark, set in five currencies, is used to price euro-denominated corporate bonds and $550 billion of securities tied to commercial real estate. Fluctuations help determine the performance of structured notes bought by wealthy individuals. 

Kerrie Cohen, a spokeswoman for Barclays, declined to comment, as did Scott Helfman of Citigroup and Steve Adamske, a spokesman for the CFTC in Washington.

“ICAP is cooperating with the CFTC’s wider inquiry into this area, and due to its pending nature we will not be commenting further,” Guy Taylor, a spokesman, said in a telephone interview. 

‘Banging the Close’  

Banks set ISDAfix for 10-year rate swaps at 2.861 percent yesterday, up from 1.785 percent at year-end, according to ICAP data. 

Commodities Futures Trading Commission is investigating swap deals.

CFTC investigators are piecing together evidence that shows swaption traders at banks worked with rate-swap traders at their own firms to manipulate ISDAfix, the person said. The swaption traders told their rate-swap colleagues the level at which they needed ISDAfix to be set that day in order to bolster the value of their derivatives positions before these were settled the next day, the person said. 

The rate-swap trader would then tell a broker at ICAP, the biggest arranger of the contracts between banks, to execute as many trades in interest-rate swaps as necessary to move ISDAfix to the desired level. This would be done just before 11 a.m. in New York, the time when current trades are used to create reference points that help determine the final ISDAfix rates, the person said. 

Treasure Island

Buying or selling large volumes to move prices just before the end of a trading day or benchmark fixing is known as banging the close. Such trading may violate Dodd-Frank, the regulatory overhaul passed by Congress after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The law defines the activity as demonstrating “intentional or reckless disregard for the orderly execution of transactions during the closing period.”

In manipulating ISDAfix, ICAP brokers profited from the commissions they received from the interest-rate swap trades banks ordered to influence the benchmark, the person said. 

Banks were willing to endure trading costs with the brokers that may have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars because they stood to earn millions on swaptions by manipulating ISDAfix by as little as a quarter of a basis point, or 0.0025 percentage point, the person said. 

The CFTC investigation is centered on ICAP’s (IAP) U.S. interest-rate swap desk, nicknamed Treasure Island because brokers there were paid as much as $7 million a year at the market’s peak, two people with knowledge of the matter said in April. 

Trader works on floor of U.S. stock exchange.

Electronic Screen

ICAP manages an electronic screen known as 19901 on which rate-swap prices are displayed throughout the day to about 6,000 corporate treasurers and money managers so they can value positions. The trades displayed on the screen are used to create the reference points for ISDAfix rates, according to ISDA’s website. ICAP then sends the reference point to banks, which either accept it as their contribution to the benchmark or submit a different value. 

The team of about 20 Treasure Island brokers made $100 million to $120 million annually for ICAP around 2008 and 2009, the people said in April. Rates swaps with a notional value of $370 trillion were outstanding at the end of 2012, according to the Bank for International Settlements. 

LIBOR Rigging  

Shell is part of investigation; rigging may affect gas prices.

Investigators will need to produce e-mails that clearly show manipulative intent by traders, as they did in the Libor probe, Chen said. Otherwise, the banks may be able to defend the actions as typical trading activities, he said.

Regulators from New York to Singapore have begun looking into the possible rigging of other market benchmarks. 

NYSE Euronext, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, said last month it will replace the British Bankers’ Association in administering Libor rates and vowed to restore confidence to the measure amid the rigging scandal. Libor has been overseen by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority since April as part of an overhaul. 

The European Commission said in May it was investigating Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Statoil ASA, three of Europe’s biggest oil explorers, over potential manipulation of Brent Crude, which helps set prices in the $3.4 trillion-a-year global oil market. Neste Oil Oyj, Finland’s only refiner, was asked to provide information regarding the probe.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association created ISDAfix in 1998 along with the predecessors of Thomson Reuters Corp. and ICAP. 

“ISDA developed ISDAfix to facilitate the determination of exercise values for cash-settled swap options,” the New York-based lobbying and trade group says on its website.

The rates are distributed by Thomson Reuters, Telekurs and Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, according to ISDA’s website. Bloomberg competes with ICAP in some businesses, including foreign-exchange and swaps trading.

 The contributors to ISDAfix being investigated by the CFTC are Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Barclays, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Goldman Sachs Group Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (8411), Morgan Stanley (MS), Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604), Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)

Representatives of the banks declined to comment.

Click on Understanding the ISDAfix Controversy and Its Potential Impact for further info.

Moratorium NOW! slide by Mike Shane.

“Stop and Frisk” case plaintiffs (L-R) Nicholas Peart, Lalit Clarkson, Leroy Downs, Devin Almonor and David Ourlicht pose for the media after a news conference at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, August 12, 2013. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

A judge rules that the NYPD’s practice of stopping, questioning and frisking young black and Latino men violates the Fourth Amendment

AlterNet / By Kristen Gwynne

August 12, 2013 |

On Monday, a decade-long battle to curb the New York Police Department’s racial profiling of young, black and Latino men reached a historic turning point. Federal judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that New York City has routinely and systematically violated the Constitution by unlawfully stopping, and often frisking, young men of color.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin

Scheindlin’s striking decision in the class action lawsuit, Floyd v. City of New York, delivers a severe blow to the racially discriminatory policies of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, whose police practices have led to humiliation and harassment in New York communities.

Scheindlin’s 195-page decision [3] explained that the NYPD’s practice of stopping, questioning and frisking young black and Latino men violates 4th Amendment law mandating reasonable suspicion for a search. Rather than targeting individuals in the process of committing a crime, the NYPD targeted all young black and Latino men in their jurisdiction. The city, Scheindlin said, “adopted a policy of indirect racial profiling by targeting racially defined groups for stops based on local crime suspect data.” The policy violated not only the 4th Amendment rights of New Yorkers, but their 14th Amendment protections as well.

The ruling does not deem stop-and-frisk unlawful as a police tool (in fact, it’s used in police departments everywhere) but acknowledges that its enforcement has not been in line with Supreme Court decisions outlining the tactic’s legal use.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Scheindlin ordered as part of the injunctive relief (no monetary damages were filed) that a court-appointed monitor oversee stop-and-frisk, and mandated a Joint Remedial Process, complete with a facilitator, to include input from stakeholders like residents in communities with high volumes of stops. The ruling also mandates a one-year pilot program of police officer-worn cameras in one precinct per borough, whose recordings, Scheindlin wrote, “may either confirm or refute the belief of some minorities that they have been stopped simply as a result of their race, or based on the clothes they wore, such as baggie pants or a hoodie.”

Bloomberg’s Propaganda Machine

The NYPD stopped more than 684,000 people in 2011, marking a 600 percent increase from Bloomberg’s first year in office in 2002. Nearly ninety percent of those stopped have been Black or Latno. Scheindlin found that plaintiffs proved an “action pursuant to official municipal policy” caused the constitutional violations, and held Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration responsible not only for enforcing the lawless behavior, but intentionally ignoring and downplaying evidence of widespread misuse and damage to communities.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly

Under the NYPD’s policy, targeting the ‘right people’ means stopping people in part because of their race. Together with Commissioner Kelly’s statement that the NYPD focuses stop and frisks on young blacks and Hispanics in order to instill in them a fear of being stopped, and other explicit references to race,” wrote Scheindlin, “there is a sufficient basis for inferring discriminatory intent.”

The judge’s decision is troubling news for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has already vowed to appeal the ruling. Bloomberg continued his longstanding, heated campaign to smear Scheindlin—as well as multiple critics of stop-and-frisk—when he accused of the judge of not giving the city “a fair trial” this afternoon.

While Bloomberg has repeatedly claimed that stop-and-frisk is an essential tool for deterring gun violence, Scheindlin stated as fact that less than 2 percent of stops from 2004 to 2011 uncovered a weapon. She added that nearly 9/10ths of all stops resulted in no further law enforcement action, like a summons or arrest, suggesting via the NYPD’s own data that officers rarely have the suspicion necessary to make these stops.

Unfounded police stops, searches and seizures are one of the primary reasons this state and country’s prison population is booming.

Still, Scheindlin has emphasized that the case is not about whether the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy works or saves lives, but the constitutionality of police behavior.

“The goals of liberty and safety may be in tension, but they can coexist — indeed the Constitution mandates it,” she wrote in the ruling. Moreover, she said the case is not primarily about the 19 stops that were the subject of testimony at trial, but “policy” or “custom” of violating the Constitution with unlawful stops and frisks.

It is “important to recognize the human toll” of unconstitutional stops, said Scheindlin. “While it is true that any one stop is a limited intrusion in duration and deprivation of liberty, each stop is also a demeaning and humiliating experience. No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life,” she wrote.

Youth in Highland Park outside school board meeting where dozens of their teachers were laid off. Photp 4 29 2004.

Scheindlin linked the ruling to the national struggle for the humanity of young men of color, who are far too often deemed suspicious or guilty without reason. In a nod to NYPD testimony claiming that suspect descriptions for young black men allow for race-based targeting by police, Scheindlin rejected Bloomberg’s rhetoric that stop-and-frisk must target color to be effective.

“Rather than being a defense against the charge of racial profiling, however, this reasoning is a defense of racial profiling,” wrote Scheindlin. “To say that black people in general are somehow more suspicious-looking, or criminal in appearance, than white people is not a race-neutral explanation for racial disparities in NYPD stops: it is itself a racially biased explanation. This explanation is especially troubling because it echoes the stereotype that black men are more likely to engage in criminal conduct than others.”

Noting the prevalence and damage of racist stereotyping, Scheindlin references in the footnotes Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, and goes on to quote from Obama’s impromptu speech following George Zimmerman’s acquittal:

“There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.”

Scheindlin also referenced a New York Times op-ed [4] by Ekow N. Yankah:

FILE – In this Aug. 4, 2009 file photo, Detroit Chief of Police Warren Evans, right, and team stop a vehicle in Detroit. On any given day or night, dozens of Detroit’s toughest, most street-savvy officers descend on high-crime areas to round up as many illegal guns, drugs and bad guys as possible in one swoop with tactics as simple as minor traffic stops. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

“What is reasonable to do, especially in the dark of night, is defined by preconceived social roles that paint young black men as potential criminals and predators. Black men, the narrative dictates, are dangerous, to be watched and put down at the first false move. This pain is one all black men know; putting away the tie you wear to the office means peeling off the assumption that you are owed equal respect. Mr. Martin’s hoodie struck the deepest chord because we know that daring to wear jeans and a hooded sweatshirt too often means that the police or other citizens are judged to be reasonable in fearing you.” 

Speaking at an emotional press conference Monday afternoon, plaintiffs in the suit made clear the human toll Scheindlin references in her decision. “I could’ve been like Trayvon Martin,” said plaintiff Devin Almonor. Similarly, plaintiff David Ourlicht linked the practice to the “polarization of people of color” in “America as a whole.” Upon hearing the decision Monday morning, Ourlicht told the press, “The first thing I did was cry.” Struggling to find the right words, Ourlicht expressed relief in hearing his struggle “recognized.”

Plaintiff Devin Almonor said, “I could have been like Trayvon Martin.”

Scheindlin cited the stop of Cornelio McDonald as evidence of “the NYPD’s policy of indirect racial profiling based on crime suspect data.” Aware that black males had been burglarizing residences and committing armed robberies in Queens, Officer Edward French stopped McDonald because he matched suspect descriptions.

As Scheindlin notes, “McDonald was a black man crossing the street late on a winter night with his hands in his pockets, and as a black man he was treated as more suspicious than an identically situated white man would have been. In other words, because two black males committed crimes in Queens, all black males in that borough were subjected to heightened police attention.”

She noted that, in 2009, NYPD Officer Edgar Gonzalez checked “fits description” on 132 UF-250s (forms officers are supposed to fill out after every stop), though none of those stops were based on ongoing investigations or radio runs through which he might have learned a suspect description. “Nonetheless,” Scheindlin wrote, “Gonzalez’s supervisor, then-Sergeant Charlton Telford, testified that he was not concerned by this discrepancy,” insisting that the stops were based on “the race, the height, [and] the age” of suspects.”

A long campaign was conducted in the streets of New York against “Stop and Frisk” before ruling was handed down.

At the time of the stops, suspect description for burglaries was a male Hispanic (height 5’8″/5’9″), while robbery suspects were four to five black males ages 14 to 19, and shootings was a black male in his 20s. “Perhaps as a result of Officer Gonzalez’s reliance on this general suspect data, 128 of the 134 people he stopped were black or Hispanic,” wrote Scheindlin. “This is roughly in line with the percentage of 295 criminal suspects in his precinct who are either black or Hispanic (93%), but far exceeds the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the local population (60%).”

“Thus, Officer Gonzalez’s 296 UF-250s provide a perfect example of how racial profiling leads to a correlation between the racial composition of crime suspects and the racial composition of those who are stopped by the police. By checking ‘Fits Description’ as a basis for nearly every stop, Officer Gonzalez documented what appears to be a common practice among NYPD officers — treating generic crime complaint data specifying little more than race and gender as a basis for heightened suspicion,” Scheindlin concluded.

New York Senator Eric Adams

She also noted Senator Eric Adams’ testimony that NYPD Commissioner Kelly once told him he targeted young black and Hispanic men “to instill fear in them that every time that they left their homes they could be stopped by police.”

Scheindlin said she found Adams’ testimony “credible,” especially because Kelly decided not to appear at the trial to rebut the claim. “In fact, the substance of Commissioner Kelly’s statement is not so distant from the City’s publicly announced positions,” said Scheindlin, who went on to add:

Mayor Bloomberg stated in April that the NYPD’s use of stop and frisk is necessary “to deter people from carrying guns. . . . [I]f you end stops looking for guns…there will be more guns in the hands of young people and more people will be getting killed.” At the same time, the City emphasized in its opening arguments that “blacks and Hispanics account for a disproportionate share of …crime perpetrators,” and that “90 percent of all violent crime suspects are black and Hispanic.” When these premises are combined — that the purpose of stop and frisk is to deter people from carrying guns and that blacks and Hispanics are a disproportionate source of violent crime — it is only a short leap to the conclusion that blacks and Hispanics should be targeted for stops in order to deter gun violence, regardless of whether they appear objectively suspicious. Commissioner Kelly simply made explicit what is readily inferrable from the City’s public positions.

Scheindlin said that an analysis of UF-250s revealed that at least 200,0000 stops were made without reasonable suspicion between January 2004 and June 2012. That being said, Scheindlin added that, “The actual number of stops lacking reasonable suspicion was likely far higher,” because UF-250s allow officers to articulate reasonable suspicion with a series of check boxes indicating vague reasons for stops like “furtive movements,” thus giving the officers the benefit of the doubt and failing to provide “individualized” proof. Continue reading →