VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix sponsors DO NOT include the City of Detroit, or benefit its residents.

 Race sponsored by banks, corporations which caused EM takeover, devastated Detroit with debt and foreclosures

Run by phony non-profits, brings no benefits to Detroit residents

Portends state theft of island, city 

By Diane Bukowski 

Roger Penske, king of the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation.

May 25, 2013 — Since at least March, Roger Penske and his allies in the banking and corporate sector have seized control of a large section of Detroit’s world-renowned Belle Isle, banning public access and despoiling the island’s natural  beauty, all to prepare for the “Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix” June 1 and 2, 2013. 

Penske is chair of Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, Inc. (DBIGP), a non-profit which claims in its IRS filings that it “1) promotes the revitalization of economically depressed areas of the City of Detroit by conducting motor vehicle racing and 2) raise[s] funds for the preservation and improvement of Belle Isle Park.” Therefore it pays no taxes.

Jennifer Britt, whose family including children and uncle were foreclosed by Flagstar Bank after the death of her husband.

He is also CEO of Penske Corporation, which according to its website “manages businesses with revenues in excess of $16 billion, operating in more than 1,800 locations and employing more that 36,000 people worldwide.”  

This is the first time the DBIGP has returned to the Island since 2007 and 2008. Subsequent races were allegedly cancelled due to the “economic crisis of the automotive industry.” 

DBIGP’s Form 990 for 2009, the earliest available on Guidestar, indicate that revenue for 2008 was $10.6 million, with expenses of  $11.3 million. There is no declaration of any expense paid to the City of Detroit for rental of the island or the use of public employees from the recreation, police, fire and other departments. 

Flagstar Bank, one of many banks and corporations sponsoring the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. Flagstar put Jennifer Britt among thousand of others out of their homes, and was featured in protest signs at the May 4 rally for a moratorium on Detroit’s debt to the banks.

In fact, the form shows “exempt purpose rental” of $909,099 under “Program Service REVENUE,” with an identical amount for concession sales. Nothing is listed under the category “Grants and other assistance to governments and other organizations in the U.S.” in either the 2009, 2010 or 2011 Forms 990 for DBIGP. (Click on DBIGP 2009 990.)

So where are the funds raised for “the preservation and improvement of Belle Isle Park?” 

Detroit’s overall economic condition declined from 2007 to 2008, according to the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Statements for 2008. In 2008, the city had a total general fund defict of $219 million, up from $155.6 million in 2007. So evidently the city as a whole did not benefit from the races Penske held in 2007 and 2008. 

Cadillac and Quicken Loans on fenced-off race course.

VOD has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the city asking for

1. A city budget involving projected city revenues and expenses for the Grand Prix. 
2. A copy of the contract(s) with Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, Inc. and any related agencies such as the Downtown Detroit Partnership, both non-profits, involving use of city-owned public land on Belle Isle for the event. 
3. A complete list of charges to the event’s sponsors from the City of Detroit for allowing the presence of this event on city property, e.g. rent, charges for use of police, fire, recreation and other city personnel during and around the Grand Prix, to prepare for the event, to operate it, and for shutdown. 
4. A list of what improvements to Belle Isle that Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, Inc. has made or plans to make to the island, pursuant to its report to the IRS . . .
5. The cost of those improvements or planned improvements, projected for this year, and during past Grand Prix events.
6. The amount of funds the company has contributed to the preservation and improvement of Belle Isle for this year’s race, as well as previous races held on the island.

Fences and barricades protect the wealthy coming to see the Grand Prix. Here, signs for Penske Corp. and the DMC, which just laid off hundreds of workers after Vanguard Health Care, 70 percent owned by a Wall Street hedge fund, took it over as a for-profit chain. Current Detroit Mayoral candidate Mike Duggan, who was DMC CEO and led the charge for the Vanguard takeover, bailed out just before the disastrous lay-offs. Patients have reported difficulty in obtaining care since the takeover, according to advocacy groups.

There is no indication the situation will change this year, even though Detroit is in such dire distress, running a deficit allegedly exceeding $360 million, that Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr flew in on vulture wings to save the city. 

During a bicycle tour of the island May 21, this reporter took photos of sponsor signs on the raceway from the same banks and corporations which have devastated Detroit with predatory lending to its residents and government, as well as massive illegal foreclosures that have driven 275,000 people out of the city. 

Chase Bank, which counts itself among many of the City of Detroit’s creditors, and has also been responsible for thousands of foreclosures in the metro area and nationally.

 The entire section of the island west of the police station near the beach was cordoned off,  looking like a “concentration camp for the wealthy,” considering three-day ticket prices of up to $155 for adults and $110 for children.  The photos were taken through fences and barbed wire, over concrete blockades lining the raceway, as no other access was available. 

Alma Counts, an 82-year-old Detroit stroke victim, faced foreclosure by Chase after it refused to honor a modification granted by the original owner of her mortgage.

A guard said the public could not even walk on the grassy side of the island next to the river on the other side of the barricades. Fences were set up from the barricades all the way to the water. Photos were taken anyway after the reporter slipped though an open gate, which was locked on her way back, forcing her to straddle the fence in the water to get back to her bike. 

A pair of geese and poor little goslings, not yet able to fly, were however trapped by that fence. Wildlife on the island has been traumatized by destruction due to the races and other incursions on their native habitat for years now. Recently, another family of geese with babies was seen crossing East Jefferson against the traffic. dodging cars, clearly having been displaced from their original nesting place on the island.

Geese and baby goslings were trapped by fences outside of barricades.

Fence blocking public access all the way to the river itself.

Signs for Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans dominated the island as well. The wealthy mortgage baron, worth $1.9 billion,  also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers.

NBA star LeBron James.

He was fined $100,000 by the NBA Commission for remarks he made criticizing LeBron James’ decision to leave the Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Gilbert’s feelings “personify a slave master mentality,” and that he was treating James as “a runaway slave”.

The Quicken Loan headquarters in downtown Detroit migrated from the virtally all-white Detroit suburb of Livonia, also the home of current Mayoral candidate Mike Duggan until he moved to Detroit less than one year before he filed to run.

Gilbert is competing with Mike Illitch, worth $2.7 billion and owner of the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings, to buy up huge tracts of land in downtown Detroit and the Cass Corridor at bargain basement prices. 

Residents of Berwin Apartments in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, evicted by mystery buyer who may be Dan Gilbert.

It’s a toss-up which of them is responsible for the recent eviction of extremely low-income residents of three apartment buildings on Henry. Both have plans for the area, urged on by the appointment of EM Orr. 

According to a recent New York Times article, Gilbert has spent around $1 billion acquiring nearly three million square fee of real estate, and is negotiating to buy the Greektown Casino Hotel. Earlier, he bought the historic Dime Building in downtown Detroit for a paltry $15 million.

Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans is one of the DBIGP’s sponors. The billionaire may be responsible for the recent evictions of hundreds of poor folks in the Cass Corridor.

The Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix is of course also sponsored by Chevrolet, Cadillac and Corvette, brand names of cars manufactured by that great ally of Detroit’s population, General Motors.  

GM auto worker before massive lay-offs hit.

After devastating the city of Detroit with plant closures through the 1980’s, GM closed 14 factories across the U.S., including seven in Michigan, as part of its bankruptcy and government bail-out/restructuring plan in 2009. Of the company’s remaining 62,000 hourly workers, 21,000 lost their jobs.

Those closings further devastated the majority-Black city of Pontiac, which now also struggles under the whip of an EM, who has sold off a large amount of the city’s assets, including its 11 water department plants. The company has gone on to close plants, most recently in Flint, another majority-Black city run by an EM. It has also hit suburban plants throughout Michigan and the country.

Firestone and Corvette signs adorn the barricades at the 2013 DBIGP.

MGM Grand and Motor City Casino banners were prominent at the DBIGP concentration camp for the wealthy as well. While the casinos have provided jobs for some grateful Detroiters, they have also impoverished a great many more who have become gambling addicts.

Motor City Casino proudly sponsors the DBIGP as well.

Additionally, Detroit’s tax revenues from those casinos now go directly to U.S. Bank NA, which acts as a trustee to make sure its debts to the banks get paid off from that income. The primary creditor is UBS AG, which loaned the city a whopping $1.5 BILLION in pension obligation certificates in 2005, a predatory loan which the city defaulted on twice after the global economic collapse of 2008, costing it another $1 billion in fines.

Improverished family waits for housing assistance.

Despite those factors, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, head of Detroit’s NAACP chapter, recently held its membership meeting at the MGM Grand Casino hotel.

Earlier, after hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents, mainly women and children, were thrown off public assistance, the Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH came to Detroit to join a protest by the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. He refused, however, to call a boycott of Michigan businesses and proceeded to hold a Rainbow PUSH Automotive Summit at the same hotel the next week, attended by auto executives from across the globe.

Shinola sponsorship signs on raceway.

 A newcomer to the Grand Prix sponsorship is Shinola, LLC, a white-owned start-up company given an award by City Council President Charles Pugh at the beginning of its session April 9, 2013. The company evidently has quite a bit of money available, since its signs, next to the historic Dodge Fountain, also blocked from public access, were as prominent as those of the major corporations.

Charles Pugh with partners of Shinola, LLC, including CEO Randy Montgomery (3rd from left) at City Council meeting April 9, 2013.

Shinola CEO Randy Montgomery and his partners are making watches, bicycles and other  paraphernalia at the College for Creative Studies, but have not said how many Detroiters they are  hiring. 

Pugh said he met Montgomery at a meeting of the  Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, a corporate front for privatization. The company bought the rights to the name from the makers of Shinola shoe polish, which ran racist ads featuring a Black child shining shoes.

The daily media is currently running outraged articles regarding EM Orr’s alleged announcement that paintings and other art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, which are owned by the City, may be sold to pay off the city’s debt. They make no mention of the earllier loss of actual human beings, city workers who lost their jobs when the DIA was handed over to the management of the Founders Society, run by wealthy suburbanites.

OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTERS BLOCK THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE IN NEW YORK CITY IN 2011.

It is more likely that treasures like Belle Isle, which is used primarily by Black Detroiters, particularly Black youth who have few other places for recreation, and the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, run across a six-county area largely by Black city workers, will face the EM’s ax if Detroiters do not rise to defend their home.

VOD RECOMMENDS THAT DETROITERS AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT THEM BOYCOTT THE GRAND PRIX TO PROTEST THE EM TAKEOVER OF THE CITY.

• DO NOT BUY TICKETS.
• DO NOT ATTEND THE FREE DAY WHICH GIVES THE DBIGP THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW OFF BLACKS IN ATTENDANCE, WATCHING WEALTHY WHITE RACE CAR DRIVERS.
• DO NOT VOLUNTEER! DETROITERS NEED PAID JOBS!
• CONDUCT A MASS PROTEST AT THE BRIDGE! BLOCK TRAFFIC! INTERFERE WITH COMMERCE! SAVE OUR CITY!

Some related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/16/detroit-em-orrs-report-envisions-a-nightmare-future/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/09/people-demand-moratorium-on-detroit-debt-reparations-as-em-readies-attack/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/04/privatizating-detroit-residents-evicted-and-displaced-by-corporate-interests-hearing-with-feds-may-20-4-p-m-uaw-local-600/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/18/detroit-city-council-says-yes-to-banks-in-jones-day-vote-people-say-no/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/only-wall-street-wins-in-detroit-crisis-reaping-474-million-fee/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/31/detroit-council-to-vote-on-jones-day-contract-firm-represents-criminal-banks-holding-citys-debt/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/27/detroiters-march-in-cleveland-tell-jones-day-and-banks-get-out/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/03/bing-will-hurt-detroit-kids-shutting-parks-to-retaliate-for-belle-isle-lease-failure/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/27/people-rise-up-against-lease-of-belle-isle-committee-votes-no-council-still-to-meet-mon-jan-28-2-pm-tues-jan-29-9-am/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/26/belle-isle-is-black-land/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/27/peoples-rally-hands-off-belle-isle-council-hearing-thurs-oct-4-1-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/15/90-yr-belle-isle-lease-entry-fees-go-to-state-fedstate-cops-to-patrol-council-hearing-mon-sept/

Angela Crockett, fighting eviction of herself and her son.

From Detroit Eviction Defense

5pm -11pm, UAW Local 1700 hall
Have fun, help a neighbor

 Detroit resident Angela Crockett has defended herself valiantly to keep her family from being evicted. This dinner-dance will raise funds to help save her home. The hall is located at 8230 E. 8 Mile Rd.

 Ms. Crockett and her son were foreclosed on by Citibank while participating in the Home Affordable Unemployment Program, in complete violation of the rules.

She has been fighting in court and through a public campaign to pressure Citibank to stop foreclosure actions and negotiate a fair solution that reflects the real market value of the home and a low interest rate loan.

 Sliding scale donations are $10 to $25, including food.

 For more information, contact Detroit.save.a.home@gmail.com.

Related story:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/19/stop-government-foreclosures-of-our-homes-hurricane-fannie-freddie-pack-hearing-wed-feb-20-2pm-u-s-judge-nancy-edmunds/

Crowd applauds testimony from S. Baxter Jones at Metro Detroit hearing against foreclosures May 20, 2013. Photo by Jim West

BY DETROIT EVICTION DEFENSE

May 24, 2013

Website: http://detroitevictiondefense.net/

• 200+ people came out to hear testimony May 20
• Homeowners determined to stay and fight

(l-r) S. Baxter Jones and Dave Sole were among the 22 people who testified at hearing.

‘I really wanted you to view me and acknowledge me as a living, breathing, human being and not just another statistical casualty. I guess because you’re not represented here today, I can’t accomplish that. I guess when you don’t have to face me it makes it easier for you to not feel compassion for me or to account for your actions towards me.
“You can just continue business as usual, taking away my home and pushing another faceless person out into the streets.” — S. Baxter Jones, at May 20 hearing on federal agencies evicting homeowners

UAW VP Cinda Estrada. Photo by Jim West.

DETROIT– After months of negotiations with UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada and some stalling, the government-owned Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac agencies had agreed to send 20 officials to town on May 20 and see first-hand how their hard-hearted policies are devasting our communities.

“Fannie and Freddie, which own or insure more than half of all residential mortgages in the country, have foreclosed on more than 15,000 families in Wayne County since the government takeover by the Federal Housing and Finance Agency [in 2008],” UAW V.P. Cindy Estrada told the Metro Times. “Thousands more have lost their homes in Oakland and Macomb.”

Fannie and Freddie’s empty seats at May 20 hearing.

But after months of planning, just days before the hearing, the officials from our government backed out, saying it would be “awkward” for them to be in the same room with homeowners who are battling them in court to save their homes from eviction. The hearing went on without them.

They can’t hide from the truth — the powerful testimony was being taped, and we’ll make sure it gets to the Feds. Stay tuned for more on that, & more powerful messages from the hearing.

More information:

• During the bank crisis, the U.S. government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which insure and buy mortgages from banks.
• At the hearing, 22 homeowners, neighborhood activists, and members of the legal defense team gave powerful testimony on how Fannie and Freddie are relentlessly evicting families who have trouble paying inflated mortgages. The testimony was broadcast live-to-tape by Tony Trupiano that evening on his “Night Shift” program (WDFN, AM radio, 1130, 7pm). Our new report, “A Hurricane Without Water: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Foreclosure Crisis in Metro Detroit” was distributed at the hearing and can be downloaded from this site at
• Check out Curt Guyette’s story in Metro Times, and be sure to add your comments, at http://metrotimes.com/news/news-hits/news-hits-1.1493699.

We are fighting for three things the federal government can do:

1) Halt Foreclosures & Evictions: Fannie Mae has declared moratoriums for hurricane victims. The 75,000 Michigan families foreclosed on in the last year are also victims— of mass unemployment and mortgage banking fraud.

2) Principal Reduction: Fannie and Freddie should help families in need by by reducing mortgage principal to reflect current market values. Families facing foreclosure can hear from homeowners at the rally who have successfully resisted.

3) Due Process for All: As government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now governed by the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The case opened Feb. 20 in Detroit.

(VIDEO ABOVE, EXPLAINING ROLE OF FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC IN FORECLOSURE HURRICANE, IS FROM MORATORIUM NOW! WEBSITE at http://moratorium-mi.org/ )

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Cancel Appearance At Metro Detroit Foreclosure Hearing

By David Sands

David SandsBecome a fan

david.sands@huffingtonpost.com

May 18, 2013

DETROIT – Officials from the mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have withdrawn from a Detroit event where homeowners are set to talk about the impact foreclosures have had on their lives and communities.

The group Detroit Eviction Defense claims the last-minute cancellation of the May 20 hearing comes after officials for the government-backed agencies told organizers it would be “awkward” to hear testimony from homeowners who are currently litigating against them.

Steve Babson, a spokesman for Detroit Eviction Defense, said organizers received word of the cancellation through a series of phone calls with employees of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie and Freddie.

“They said, ‘Well, we’ve decided it would be pretty awkward for us to be in the same room in a public event with homeowners who are in litigation against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over potential evictions,'” Babson told The Huffington Post. “This was a phone conversation, as it had been for several months, but this was unfortunately at the 11th hour saying they were pulling out.”

Meg Burns, senior associate director of the Office of Housing and Regulatory Policy, sent a statement to The Huffington Post confirming that officials from FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had earlier committed to attending the hearing but now would be unable to do so.

“We are disappointed we can’t be at the event but we look forward to hearing the concerns of the homeowners and seeing the impact the housing crisis has had on the affected residents,” she wrote. “This information will serve as the basis for the follow-up policy discussion that we remain committed to having with the UAW and other interested parties.”

A spokesperson for Burns said that FHFA would hold a policy discussion with the United Auto Workers and other groups after the event, though no official date has been set. 

In 2007, Metro Detroit led the nation with nearly 5 percent of properties in some stage of foreclosure. Although those rates are declining, 20,000 foreclosed properties in the city of Detroit were auctioned off by Wayne County last year.

About 20 homeowners are expected to speak to an audience of community activists, housing advocates and others. There will also be an open mic session for others who wish to comment. Organizers plan to videotape the testimony and deliver it to Fannie Mae at a later date.

Babson called the mortgage giants’ concerns that testimony at the event would compromise ongoing legal cases a “phony argument,” noting that officials were invited to listen, not to speak, and knew of the event’s format ahead of time.

“I think it’s outrageous,” Babson said. “We find it very insulting and we think it’s pretty transparent that what they find ‘awkward’ is the prospect of being with people who are victims of a foreclosure policy that we think is doing serious damage to Metro Detroit.”

The Detroit Eviction Defense coalition has been working with the UAW and the AFL-CIO on foreclosure issues for about two years. The group defends homeowners against foreclosure and eviction through a variety of methods, including non-violent direct action. The organization is calling for a moratorium on foreclosures by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Metro Detroit, similar to the one instituted for regions affected by Hurricane Sandy, and a reduction of principal for “underwater” loans that have balances higher than a home’s market value.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. They have received more than $187 billion in taxpayer funds and have paid $58 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury. The two government-sponsored enterprises provide a secondary market for mortgages, purchasing them from originating lenders, and sometimes selling them as guaranteed securities.

After two recent court decisions, the two lenders may be forced to pay real estate taxes and extend due process to foreclosed homeowners in Michigan.

  UPDATE MAY 9, 2013: Rest in Power, Malcolm el Shabazz

TATEMENT CONCERNING THE HARASSMENT FROM THE POLICE/FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WHICH RESULTED IN MY UNJUST ARREST & DETAINMENT IN FEBRUARY 2013, AND PLACED A HALT ON MY TRAVEL TO TEHRAN, IRAN TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FAJR FILM FESTIVAL.

Published by Cynthia McKinney

MALCOLM X at London Airport, July 9, 1964. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

I sincerely appreciate the care & concern of the People over my well-being after Press TV’s report of the most recent events which have transpired regarding the F.B.I.’s harassment of me.

Given the storm of lies, and half-truths that come with being associated with being the descendant of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, also known as Minister Malcolm X, any and everything that I do; great or small, good or not so good, real or imagined is subject to controversy. However, in this missive I will take this opportunity to properly & fully disclose what transpired.

In the beginning of 2012 I had been informed that I was under investigation by the F.B.I.’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit located in Goshen, N.Y.

The agents of this division-and in collaboration with others-have visited several residences of which I was known by them to frequent. However, they would never come when they knew me to actually be there. They would leave their cards with the residents asking them to tell me to call them, and then would tell surrounding residents to observe the house and to notify them if they saw me.

These are the homes of long-time friends, and very close supporters. Yet, when federal agents begin knocking on someone’s door on multiple occasions to snoop, and ask questions, whether one is guilty of an offense or not, it’s enough to coerce people into distancing themselves from you. This cheap tactic employed by the F.B.I. is a means of agitation & harassment. They seek to neutralize my networking abilities.

They have visited locations in California, Chicago, Miami and most aggressively in New York.

Attorney William Kunstler, right, escorts Qubilah Shabazz to the Minneapolis Federal Building Monday morning, May 1, 1995, where a settlement was reached in the murder-for-hire case against Shabazz, a daughter of the late Malcolm X. Shabazz was scheduled to go on trial Monday on charges of plotting to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. At left is family attorney Percy Sutton. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) The charges were later exposed as an FBI frame-up and Ms. Shabazz was acquitted.

People were advising me that if I had nothing to hide, then I should just contact them as requested and cooperate. Though I must say that in these kind of matters I am of a particular ethic. For one, I have been engaged in no criminal activity of their concern, and they could have located me if they so chose. Secondly, I don’t recognize the authority in them beckoning me.

It wasn’t even until my mother [Qubilah Shabazz] informed me that they had been contacting her that I truly became agitated. She advised me to see what they had to say, and so I obliged the next time they came around looking for me. My encounter was with 2 federal agents of Goshen, N.Y.’s Counter Terrorism Task Foci Unit. The primary agent identified himself as Special Agent Tom Brozicky.

Former U.S. Congresswoman and Presidential candidate in Detroit Aug. 27, 2011 during tour against US/NATO war on Libya. Photo: DIane Bukowski

They expressed concern over-as they put it-my “international travels”; I have lived & studied in Damascus, Syria for over a year, and now the U.S. is instigating conflict within the very same region; I went on ex-congresswoman/former presidential candidate Cynthia Mckinney’s delegation along with Dr. Randy Short to Libya, and met with Leader Muammar Gadhafi one week prior to N.A.T.O. intervention and I was most recently getting ready to travel to Tehran, Iran to be a participant of the International Fajr Film Festival and give a lecture addressing the issues of Hollywood and violence: – Modern Violence & Terrorism-– Provoking clashes between religions & populations.

Logo for International FAJR Film Festivan in Tehran, Iran.

I was picked up by authorities after I filed for a visa to Iran, and 2 days prior to my departure, a detective squad from the City of Middletown Police Department surrounded me in the street about 2 blocks from where I was residing. They asked me my name, and I gave them an alias, but they were already well aware of who I actually was. I didn’t tell them my real name because I didn’t know what was going on. When I was brought before a Judge of City of Middletown court I was surprised to be informed that I was being charged with Grand Larceny, and False Impersonation charge. Then I was sent to jail, and told to appear again 7 days later. Then following court date the bogus charge of Grand Larceny, which they only put to justify stopping me in first place, was dropped. And they left me to face the False Impersonation. I was offered 90 days for the offense of giving the authorities the wrong name which I declined before bailing out after 2 weeks.

When I was being held within the belly of the beast on trumped up charges, to my rescue came the journalist at Press TV based in Iran. My relationship with powerful & progressive news outfit began in April of 2012, and prior to that I had discussions with their journalist regarding current events internationally. I developed a positive rapport with some of them, and as a result was invited to travel to Iran to discuss the impact of Hollywood in stereotyping Muslims, Iranians and African people.

“Betty and Coretta,” film which slandered Malcolm X and NOI, starring Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige.

From January 15th through 18th, 2013, I was a featured interviewee for the Press TV documentary “The Façade of the American Dream”. And prior to my date of departure to Iran, Lifetime television released a television bio-picture called “Betty & Coretta” which was a sensationalistic misrepresentation of my grandparents, my mother and me. This film aside from being poorly acted, and shallow in depth also threatened to inflame old controversies, and open unhealed wounds and to remind the public of sad outcomes without ever identifying B.O.S.S.I., the C.I.A., F.B.I. and other forces that set the climate for my grandfather’s assassination, and made my family a long-suffering casualty of COINTELPRO, and other anti-Black repression programs. Naturally, anything done to stir up old hatred of The Shabazz Family will impact me as the name-sake, and first male heir of Malcolm X, and whether I am high or low in fortunes does not exempt me from this reality.

Betty Shabazz interviewed after the assassination of her husband El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) Feb. 21, 1965.

The formula for a public assassination is: the character assassination before the physical assassination; so one has to be made killable before the eyes of the public in order for their eventual murder to then deemed justifiable. And when the time arrives for these hits to be carried out you’re not going to see a C.I.A. agent with a suit & tie, and a badge that says “C.I.A.” walk up to someone, and pull the trigger. What they will do is to out-source to local police departments in the region of their target, and to employ those that look like the target of interest to infiltrate the workings in order to set up the environment for the eventual assassination (character, physical/incarceration, exile) to take place.

For several months prior to my arrest in late January, 2013 I faced a pattern of harassment from law enforcement which is usually reserved for important figures. On Thursday, November 1, 2012 @ 11:53pm in the park circle area of Middletown, N.Y. I was stopped by officers of the Middletown Police Department, and given a ticket for “J-Walking” (crossing in the middle of the street), which then escalated into a “Disorderly Conduct” supposedly because of the exchange of words that I had with the officers.

I told them that they couldn’t possibly be serious for writing me a “J-Walking ticket”, that I didn’t appreciate how they were treating me and that they shouldn’t be looking at me as less of a man because they were in police uniform. For this I was arrested, the officers stole the little amount of money that I had on me, they then stripped me and threw me in a freezing precinct cell for the remainder of that early morning. I was finally taken before the “Judge Steven Brockett” around 1:30pm. He gave me an unreasonable bail, and then ordered that I be remanded to the Orange county Jail.

Middletown auxiliary police.

This penalty may seem a bit extreme or harsh to most of you, but here is where it gets worse: On Tuesday, October 30th, exactly 2 nights prior to this incident, the same officer “J Berman” who wrote me the ticket for “J-Walking” & “Disorderly Conduct” stopped me coming from out of a store in the same area, and questioned me as to what I was doing.

I told him that I was coming out of the store. He asked to see what I bought which was a pack of sun flower seeds. I had actually just so happened to be eating a few while he was talking to me, and I spit one of the shells on the ground. At this point officer “J Berman” threatened to write me a ticket for littering. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded, but I went home that night.

Middletown police cars.

Yet, it still doesn’t even begin there. I had an encounter with other officers of the Midletown Police Department one week prior to officer “J Berman’s” threats to write me a ticket for spitting a sun flower seed on the ground: I was coming out of a restaurant with my mother, and her friend. As the 3 of us entered the car to leave 2 police cars converged on our vehicle, and boxed us in. My mother was petrified. With guns drawn I was then ordered to step out of the back seat. I asked them why to which they replied that I had several warrants for my arrest. I told them that they were mistaken, but I still complied with their request. Humiliated in front of all on-lookers I was then thrown on the car while the officers ripped through my pockets. After they were done they said that it was my lucky day because I actually didn’t have any warrants at all, and so I was free to go! One of these officer’s name was “R. Ribeiro”…

You may wonder if it could possibly get any worse than this. Well, it does! Approximately 3 weeks prior to the public humiliation of my mother, and me by “R Ribeiro” and another officer of the Middletown Police Department I found myself subject to the discriminati

Middletown Mayor Joseph DiStefano.

on & prejudice of Mayor Joseph M. Destefano of Middletown, N.Y. himself. A friend, and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Middletown, N.Y. which is owned by the Mayor, and to our surprise he appeared from nowhere and asked us to leave. When we inquired as to why he stated that officials of the Middletown Police Department told him not to let us patronize his establishment. Mind you that this goes without incident.

As I stand for the people, God-Willing, I would pray that the same people wouldn’t hesitate to stand for me. If these unjust & heinous actions are tolerated & allowed to be done to me without recourse, then no one is safe. Just as Huewy P Newton of the Black Panther Party stated that police are in the white community to protect & serve, yet occupy ours like a foreign troop… I tell you that we shouldn’t fall victim to the conditioning of feeling inferior or fearful at the presence of law enforcement for no apparent reason.

With that being said, I was not arrested by federal agents. I was taken in by a squad from the City of Middletown, N.Y.’s Police Department. I was not being held in an “undisclosed location” so to speak. I was actually being held in the Orange County Jail in Goshen, N.Y. However, from the time that I was booked at the precinct, to standing before a Judge the next day who told me to come back in 7 more, to being processed at the Orange County Jail and up until 7 days later I was not permitted to make any calls to notify anyone of my status; as though I had just been kidnapped from of the street.

BELOW: PRESS TV INTERVIEW WITH MALCOLM-LATIF SHABAZZ

Unfortunately, until this day my family hasn’t been fully abreast of my situation as I haven’t had the opportunity to properly consult with any of them. Dr. Randy Short who notified Press TV of my situation is a close comrade of mine who was on our delegation in Libya. Media reports from Press TV about my situation were not intended to create controversy. In reality, I have a few associates that are affiliated with this reputable International media outlet, and they had expected to meet with me in Iran.

So when I disappeared, and rumors spread, the inability to get concise information from a credible source prompted them to rouse public attention on my behalf, for which I am grateful. In April of 2012 I had the opportunity to be a guest analyst/contributor on Press TV. This network has a large following all over the world, and millions find it’s news, documentaries and programming to be both an educational, and insightful alternative to the conglomerated, and highly biased mainstream American & British news media. Regarding the Source magazine, nothing that they published was vetted by me, and was made by persons, at best, vaguely familiar with my situation. Further, I have never had an affiliation or relationship with The Source, nor have they ever directly consulted with me about anything.

Also See:
COINTELPRO 101 & COINTELPRO Documentary|
COINTELPRO: The Untold Story
All Power to the People!
SILENCING DISSENT
SUPPLEMENTARY DETAILED STAFF REPORTS ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS – FINAL REPORT BOOK III
THE COINTELPRO PAPERS BY WARD CHURCHILL AND JIM VANDER WALL

 Spoke earlier at EM supporter Horace Sheffield’s church

Advocates city pastors coalescing to buy land on behalf of the people

Published on May 18, 2013

Honorable Louis Farrakhan, NOI, At Detroit’s City Council Meeting – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * *

Most of Detroit’s vacant lots are in the neighborhoods, due to predatory lending and fraudulent bank foreclosures.

Minister Farrakhan called on the Detroit community yesterday and today to buy the valuable property that’s now for sale in Detroit. About the importance of uniting, he said, we could choose what part of downtown we want to own.

Farrakhan pointed out that there shouldn’t be any division between Islam and Christianity. Urging African people to develop more African pride, he said, “You’re the people of God. … You’re the builders of civilization.”

He preached about the important of self-reliance and family values, the importance of “Black Empowerment” saying we, Detroiter’s can rebuild Detroit if we ground ourselves in good morals.

This was the first time Minter Farrakhan has been to Detroit since 2007. He pointed out the Nation of Islam was started in Detroit, and he felt an obligation to help!  (The majority of the City Council audience were members of the Nation of Islam, unlike at the evening rally.)

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of :

1} From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913  eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
2} The World As I’ve Seen It! My Greatest Experience! {Photo Book}
3) YouTube: I have over 405 Video’s, over 148,000 hits averaging 5,000 a month on my YouTube channel @ www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

Rev. Horace Sheffield III

VOD editor Diane Bukowski, who also writes for the Final Call, the newspaper of the Nation of Islam, attended Minister Farrakhan’s evening lecture at Fellowship Chapel. Story is coming on that. Meanwhile, it is noted that Rev. Horace Sheffield’s church, where the Minister spoke May 16, occupies a former Detroit public school in a city where more than half the public schools have been closed. Sheffield has advocated that the state limit on charter schools be lifted.

Other city ministers such as Rev. James Holley  of Little Rock Baptist Church, who was acknowledged at the evening hearing, have bought multiple city properties including recreation centers, privatizing them. Workers at these properties are not unionized, and are not being paid union wages and benefits.

Rev. David Bullock speaks at MLK Day, 2012 march on Gov. Rick Snyder’s house, with Rev. Charles Williams II at his left. Also present (top) Rev. Charles Williams, Sr. (r) Rev. Edward Pinckney.

Sheffield has openly supported Detroit’s Emergency Manager, Kevyn Orr, appointed by racist right-wing Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, on his radio show. Sheffield additionally attacked Revs. David Bullock and Charles Williams II, who along with Council members JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones, and Kwame Kenyatta, have been in the leadership of the struggle against the emergency manager acts and the takeover of Detroit by the state and the banks.

That takeover has been facilitated by the other six members of the Detroit City Council, Charles Pugh, Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., and Andre Spivey. The first five voted for the disastrous PA4 consent agreement, and all six voted for contracts with consultants including EM Orr’s law firm, Jones Day. Jones Day represents nearly all the banks that have laden Detroit with an unmanageable burden of debt. It was Spivey who invited Minister Farrakhan to speak. Councilwoman Watson requested his presence earlier, in February before Orr’s appointment by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder March 25, 2013.

Council Sell-out Six: (l to r) Cockrel Jr., Jenkins, Brown, Pugh, Spivey, Tate.

Related article:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/16/detroit-em-orrs-report-envisions-a-nightmare-future/

(From bottom left clockwise) EM KEVYN ORR’S REPORT PROPOSES CUTS TO OR ELIMINATION OF RECREATION, BUSES, STREET LIGHTS, RETIREES BENEFITS, WATER DEPT, AND BELLE ISLE.

Massive cuts to street lighting, bus service, DWSD, recreation, land, workers, pensions and health care 

No concrete proposals to cut city’s debt, only lip service 

By Diane Bukowski 

ANALYSIS

May 16, 2013 

Detroit EM Kevyn Orr and Stephen Brogan, head of Jones Day, Detroit’s “debt-restructuring consultant.”

DETROIT – Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr painted a nightmarish vision for the city’s future in his May 12 report to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. It is a vision born on Wall Street and, as Orr admits, imparted to state and city officials who have colluded in the plan, largely through last year’s Public Act 4 “consent agreement.” (Click on Orr report for full document.) 

Orr has said the April 4, 2012 “Financial Stability (consent) Agreement,” passed by City Council on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, provided a “roadmap” for his plan. 

That plan is so drastic one young man who read it, a business administration major at Wayne County Community College, said he could not believe it is real. “It must be a scam,” he remarked. Unfortunately, however, Orr is dead serious. 

Detroit Public Lighting Dept. workers fix lights on Belle Isle. Orr proposes to eliminate PLD, may have plans for Belle Isle as well.

His Detroit nightmare:  

A city with 46,000 instead of 88,000 streetlights.

Large tracts of the city considered to be “surplus” and “distressed” will be left in the dark and possibly sold off. The Public Lighting Department, including its revenue-generating provision of lighting to public buildings, and its electricity grid, will be taken over by an unspecified “third party,” clearly the for-profit DTE. This will take place over a 5-7 year period, raising the question of whether Gov. Rick Snyder will extend Orr’s term beyond 18 months.

City and federal funds for D-DOT to be slashed.

More cutbacks in bus service, already operating on a skeleton basis, due to further cuts in city general fund subsidies. The newly-formed Regional Transit Authority just cut D-DOT’s federal funding from 65 percent to 49 percent of the region’s allotment, although D-DOT is the largest system in the area with the most ridership. 

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department subject to huge cuts, regionalization. DWSD will be under the EM’s unfettered control since U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox dismissed the 36-year federal oversight decree on March 27, 2013, the day Orr was appointed. Water Department unions are challenging Cox’s orders and a “Root Cause Committee’s” recommendations in federal court. These include a possible workforce reduction of 81 percent and further regional control. But Orr will now backstep to the state level, where unions face more reactionary courts.

DWSD is third largest water/sewerage department in country.

The city’s remaining 17 recreation centers placed in a “Recreation Trust” operated by an independent board which will introduce “fee-based” service and include private foundations. 

City assets may be outsourced, transferred or sold. Regarding the city’s assets (which include Belle Isle, DWSD, etc.), “the City will evaluate all options, including preserving the status quo, entering into partnerships with other public entities, outsourcing of operations, and transferring non-core assets to other private or public entities in sale, lease or other transactions.” 

MORE consultants have been hired to review Police and Fire Departments. With regard to both, Orr says there will be “additional investment in IT, infrastructure, equipment, fleet, facilities and personnel.”  He also proposes contracting out a central jail to the Michigan Department of Corrections, and “shared services and contracting out, as well as labor efficiencies,” for the Fire Department. 

City workers protest against designs on their pensions, demand jobs for the youth.

Other city departments will be evaluated to see if they will go the way of the now extinct Health and Wellness, Human Services, and Workforce Development Departments. 

Retiree health care benefits, or “low hanging fruit” as Orr spokesman Bill Nowling called them, likely to be eliminated. Orr says they are too expensive, accounting for $200 million from next year’s budget. He claims the total amount over the next 30 years is $5.7 billion.

Pensions are endangered despite state laws guaranteeing them. Orr and a task force are reviewing current actuarial assessments by Gabriel, Roeder and Smith that the General Retirement System is 83 percent funded, with the Police and Fire System 100 percent funded, both at adequate levels. Orr claims, without citing a source, that they are underfunded by $0.6 billion. 

Michigan Employee Retirement System (MERS) board members.

He notes that valuations do not include payment on the city’s Pension Obligation Certificates debt of $740 million for DGRS, and $740 million for PFRS. Orr says also that pension funds must comply with new federal GASB reporting guidelines by 2014, which will further diminish their value.  He says, “As of June 30, 2011, market values of the plan assets were significantly lower than actuarial values by about $660 M and $428 M respectively (DGRS and PFRS). 

In 2008, Mayor Bing proposed giving the $6 billion pension funds to the private Michigan Employee Retirement Systems, which kicks out members funds if they fall below a certain percentage of funding. Under MERS, Highland Park retirees frequently failed to get their checks. 

Orr’s plan DOES NOT INCLUDE: 

Detroit, the world’s largest majority-Black city outside of Africa, must have reparations.

Reparations from the banks and mortgage companies to 235,000 city residents driven out, and to the city, for massive predatory lending and mortgage fraud resulting in illegal foreclosures, as confirmed by a U.S. Senate investigative committee.

Payment of state debt to Detroit estimated at over $300 million, including revenue sharing, corporate debt estimated at $800 million, millions more owed by private entities which have received loans from the CDBG Sec. 108 program. Orr projects an “accumulated unrestricted deficit of $386.6 million for June, 2013,  but does not include proceeds from the state escrow account of $137 million. No plan is set forward to collect those debts, which have been acknowledged by State Treasurer Andy Dillon. 

Implementation of union plan to cut health care costs by dumping Blue Cross Blue Shield administration of plans, among other proposals, which would ameliorate the alleged $5.7 billion cost of retirement health care. 

March in downtown Detroit May 9, 2012.

A MORATORIUM ON THE CITY’S ALLEGED $15 BILLION DEBT TO THE BANKS, which many are challenging as predatory, usurious and illegal, Banks to whom the city owes money, such as UBS AG, are being sued by numerous entities for interest rate-rigging; UBS AG just paid a $1.5 billion fine to the U.S. Department of Justice for such practices. 

Orr says the city’s debt is unmanageable, including, “liabilities of approximately $9.4 billion in special revenue bonds, state revolving loans, pension certificates of participation (POC’s), mark-to-market swap liabilities, unlimited and limited tax general obligation bonds and other funded City Debts.” 

He alleges the city plans “a range of alternatives that COULD include, among other things, rescheduling principal amortization without reduction in principal to provide near-term debt service relief; permanently reducing the principal amount of debt outstanding . . . reducing interest rates, as appropriate, to achieve targeted cost savings . . .issuing new debt to provide certain cash recoveries to creditors.” 

One local media pundit recommends that people come en masse to Orr’s required public meeting (a date for which has not been set) to demand such debt relief. 

However, Orr’s proposals in this area, unlike those regarding cuts to services, workers, and residents, are vague. He has set up no task force to talk to the banks. He has set up no study group to examine how much of the debt Detroit owes is due to predatory lending (such as the $1.5 billion UBS POC loan), and $437 million in questionable swap liabilities cited in Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Only Wall Street profits from Detroit crisis.” 

The city hired Orr’s law firm, Jones Day, as the consultant to deal with debt-restructuring, and Orr says he is meeting with them regularly. Jones Day, however, represents virtually all the banks holding the City’s debt, and its attorneys have a history of representing racist, right wing clients and foundations. Although Orr denies a conflict of interest, even Crain’s Detroit Business blasted the city for hiring Jones Day to assist Orr as emergency manager. 

COMPENSATION FOR DISCRIMINATORY WALL STREET CREDIT RATING PRACTICES.  

Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s push $1.5 billion POC loan from UBS on Detroit City Council.

Orr says the city’s credit ratings are at junk levels, B/B by Standard & Poor’s, CCC/CC by Fitch, and Caa1/Caa2 by Moody’s. He does not propose a task force to study whether these agencies conspired with the banks to further rob the city through higher interest rates due to the low scores. The U.S. government is currently suing Standard & Poor’s for such a conspiracy, and there is outrage all over the globe at the credit rating agencies, which are actually PAID by the banks. 

In the case of Detroit’s $1.5 BILLION POC loan, representatives of Standard and Poor’s CAME TO THE CITY COUNCIL TABLE IN 2005 TO PUSH THE LOAN, issuing veiled threats that they would downgrade the city’s credit ratings otherwise. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick threatened to lay-off thousands of city workers if the Council did not agree to the disastrous loan. Later, Wall Street junked Detroit’s credit anyway, and Kilpatrick laid off 1,500 city workers. 

Related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/09/people-demand-moratorium-on-detroit-debt-reparations-as-em-readies-attack/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/18/detroit-city-council-says-yes-to-banks-in-jones-day-vote-people-say-no/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/costly-jones-day-em-contract-faces-council-vote-tues-apr-9-come-at-9-am/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/only-wall-street-wins-in-detroit-crisis-reaping-474-million-fee/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/reek-general-strike-battled-imf-austerity-measures-em-to-bring-same-to-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/reek-general-strike-battled-imf-austerity-measures-em-to-bring-same-to-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/27/detroiters-march-in-cleveland-tell-jones-day-and-banks-get-out/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/26/vampire-capitalism-comes-to-detroit-mi-and-dekalb-county-ga/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/24/from-detroit-to-cyprus-banksters-in-search-of-prey/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/19/wall-street-v-woodward-ave-will-detroit-em-address-predatory-interest-rate-swaps/

AND MANY MORE: JUST PUT “BANKS” IN VOD SEARCH ENGINE.

      **ALSO APPEARANCE AT DETROIT CITY COUNCIL AT 9 A.M.**                     

                              In the Name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful.

I bear witness there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that

Muhammad is His Servant. 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Returns to Detroit

 Contact: (313) 283-7245 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam) announced that he will be returning to the city of Detroit on May 16th and 17th. 

During a live radio broadcast on the Rock Newman Show (WOWC 1480 AM) in Washington, D.C., Minister Farrakhan told the listening audience he had been asked to come speak to the city council, members of the clergy as well as the residents of the city. While he highlighted the importance of Detroit’s rich legacy, Minister Farrakhan also underscored its present condition acknowledging: 

“Detroit is where the Nation of Islam started. Detroit is almost considered now, a dead city. So we’ll come back to Detroit where we began and look at the condition of Detroit, pool our resources and try to buy properties in Detroit and start rebuilding one of the greatest cities in America where we’re concerned.” 

Additionally, Minister Farrakhan laid out a vision on how the city’s blight can once again be transformed through a unified effort focusing on the best interest of the city: 

“We have a duty to that city. We’re going to come and see what we can do to help the school system, to help the government, to help the people. And then let’s try to own the city since the property is cheap and falling down why don’t we pool what resources we have and start buying up buildings and making them worthy and creating opportunities. That is what we need to do when we come to Detroit.”

 The public address will take place on Friday, May 17th at Fellowship Chapel located on 7707 W. Outer Drive in Detroit. Doors open at 5:30 pm and the program begins at 7 pm. For additional information, please contact Muhammad Mosque No. One at (313) 283-7245 or (313)713-5181.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan broadcasts new segments of “The Time and What Must Be Done” every Saturday at 6 p.m. Central Time, 7 p.m. EST at http://www.noi.org/thetime/. Also see The Final Call’s You Tube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/FCNN. Segment #16 is below.

Top: Detroit EM Kevyn Orr andf Jones Day boss Stephen Brogan (center); Gov. Rick Snyder (l) and Mayor Dave Bing (r).
Second row: Sandra Pierce, chair Financial Advisory Board (l), State Treasurer Andy Dillon (r), third row (l to r) Ken Whipple, co-chair FAB, Charles Pugh, City Council Pres. Kriss Andrews, City Project Manager; bottom: council members (l to r) Ken Cockrel, Jr., Saunteel Jenkins, Gary Brown, Andre Spivey, James Tate. PHOTO MONTAGE BY VOD, DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT MR. BARROW’S POSITIONS.

“Conservatives Play Chess, City Leaders Play Checkers and Get Played Out,” Barrow Says

May 10, 2013     

• Contact: Tom Barrow 313-922-7769 Option 4
• Text: Keyword “BARROW” to 313131
• http://www.BarrowForMayor.Com  

Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow testifies at City Council Jan. 28, 2013.

DETROIT – Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow today put on his psychic turban to predict the anxiously awaited report by Emergency Financial Manager Kevin Orr due out next week.

“First the set up,” said Barrow. “He will claim things are much worse than he ever thought,” and then will come the sting. “He will claim that because things are so bad, he will move at lightning speed to a near complete privatization of Detroit’s core services and  regionalization into suburban- controlled authorities” Barrow predicted.

“Oh yes, he will recommend that the state take over the city’s pension funds because that’s where a lot of money sits.”

Barrow explained further.

Public of the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“This entire plan was mapped out years ago in the conservatives’ play book commonly known to insiders as the Michigan Privatization Report published in 2001.

“Since its release, Bing, Dillon, Gov. Snyder and conservative republicans all over the U.S. and their accomplices have all been setting it up and are now the playing pieces are being moved to the end-game, which is the end of democracy and self-governance to be replaced by a corporate republic,” declared Barrow.

The report, issued by the conservative Mackinac Policy Center, detailed every step of the process to strip the state’s largest city of its assets through outright sales, privatization of core city services, regionalization and destruction of employee unions.

“While the Conservatives play chess, our leaders play checkers and get played out,” Barrow says. “Their plans have been brain-stormed, think-tanked and game-simulated all to ensure that their success is thorough, total and defensible due to the contrived financial crisis they themselves create.”

Michigan State Treasurer Andy Dillon

At a meeting in December where he accompanied City Councilmember JoAnn Watson, Barrow, an expert in municipal finance and accounting, personally challenged Michigan State Treasurer Dillon on the incorrect conclusions he has made about Detroit’s finances and concluded after extensive questioning of the Treasurer that the so-called financial crisis was “contrived”. To date, neither the Treasurer nor the Governor has disputed Barrow’s conclusions.

“Step by step, here is how they play the game and now, the king will be checkmated as Kevin Orr follows the script written for him and other emergency managers throughout Michigan,” Barrow offered, “and next week we will see these predictions come true in his report.”

READER NOTE: THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT HEADLINES ARE TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE MICHIGAN PRIVATIZATION REPORT; THE ITALICIZED PORTION IS A QUOTED EXCERPT FROM THE REPORT OF THEIR ASSIGNED “MISSION”; AND THE STEP-BY-STEP CHESS MOVES TO ACCOMPLISH THE OBJECTIVE OF PRIVATIZATION:

Privatization: The Motor City’s Renaissance Engine

Motor City Needs Budget Boost: Privatizing Detroit City Services

Detroit’s Cobo Hall regionalized under former Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr.

MISSION: If properly implemented, an aggressive privatization campaign including sales of city assets could provide Detroit with the revenue it needs to pay creditors, improve services, and maintain its infrastructure during the next decade. Privatization of city services also could prevent Detroit from becoming the first major American city to have its democratically elected leadership replaced with an appointed financial oversight panel – a fate that befell one of its suburbs, Ecorse, in the 1980s.

Asset Sales: Accounting for Privatization

MISSION: In the end, government asset sales shift assets away from non-productive political uses and toward their most productive economic uses. At the same time, such sales reduce the costs taxpayers must pay for the maintenance and improvement of government-owned facilities. Government asset sales are just one of privatization’s many win-win scenarios.

The Conventions of Privatization: Selling Cobo Center. Regionalized asset where Detroit now has minority voting power.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

City Council approved plan for Public Lighting Authority which will reduce number of city’s street lights.

Detroit Lighting Department

Step 1: Turn off the lights in strategic areas to create crisis.

Step 2: Get media to select Detroit residents of color, and comments they want street lights!

Step 3: Contract with DTE to provide lights

Step 4: Repeatedly publically decry loss of lights in neighborhoods

Step 5: Get conservative legislature to create new Lighting Authority for Detroit

Step 6: Appoint EFM

Step 7: Surprise! Lights come back on.

Step 8: EFM unilaterally gives Lighting Dept. to new state created Authority, Detroit has

minority voting power.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

Privatization Should Drive Detroit Transportation

City of Detroit bus mechanics honor their leader, Leamon WIlson, president of AFSCME Local 312 for 20 years, during his funeral April 15, 2013. He died at the age of 55.

Step 1: Mayor Bing cuts bus service – creates self inducing crisis

Step 2: Get media to select Detroit residents of color, and comments they want buses!

Step 3: Repeatedly publically decry loss of Bus service and late busses.

Step 4: Legislature creates Regional Transportation Authority

Step 5: Suburban Controlled SEMCOG Board, Changes Funding formula to steal $7 million from DDOT to give to FAILING low ridership suburban bus system.

Step 6: Now de-funded and deliberately choked, EFM Kevin Orr forces DDOT to Regionalize into the newly created Transportation Authority. Detroit given minority voting position despite being by far the overwhelming users of public transportation by its citizens.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

__________________________________

For Whom the Private “Belle Isle” Tolls

AFSCME Local 542 Pres. Phyllis McMillon speaks at rally to save Belle Isle Sept. 2012.

MISSION: Of all of Detroit’s assets, Belle Isle, the 985-acre island park situated in the Detroit River just inside the U.S. border with Canada, could very well be the city’s most attractive privatization opportunity.

Step 1: Mayor Bing deliberately neglects Belle Isle keeps concessions closed;

Step 2: Repeatedly publically falsely decry that Belle Isle filthy and dirty.

Step 3: Have media find residents of color to exclaim they want island cleaned up!

Step 4: Bing coordinates the Belle Isle crisis with Gov. Snyder to pressure citizens to give it up and make it a State Park for 99 years.

Step 5: Attempted blackmail of the Detroit City Council with threat of EFM unless they give over Belle Isle to the state. But, unforeseen public outcry scares off Council majority.

Step 6: Snyder makes good on his threat, EFM appointed.

Step 7:  Using phony steps (1) and (2) as basis, Snyder’s EFM, Kevin Orr recommends state take-over of Belle Isle and negotiates his own terms to give it away forever.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

Water Privatization Can Help Detroit Avoid Drowning in Debt

DWSD worker on strike to save department and Detroit Sept. 30, 2013.

Step 1: Have suburban controlled board hire restructuring consulting firm to tell the suburban director what they want to hear about restructuring the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Step 2: Release report from self serving, but objective-appearing restructuring firm, that Water Dept. has to fire 80 percent of its union employees.

Step 3: Conservative Republican-appointed Federal Judge mysteriously and unexpectedly releases Detroit Water Department from 45-year old Consent Decree and Oversight.

Step 4: Create phony public claim that Detroit is drowning in Bond Debt and point at DWSD even though its bonds are being paid as agreed and are guaranteed by revenue from customers as anticipated. Keep those facts secret.

Step 5: Find residents of color to agree (Failed to Find Any.)

Step 6: Because of Detroit African-American community’s sensitivity to Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, have conservative Republican Governor appoint a Black Emergency Financial Manager.

Step 7: EFM recommends REGIONALIZATION/PRIVATIZATION/LEASING of DetroitWater and Sewerage Department.

Step 6: Detroit loses control Detroit of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and begins to pay higher rates for its own former asset.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

“It doesn’t take a mind-reader to know what comes next,” lamented Barrow, 64, “the August 6 primary will be a referendum on the city’s leadership and their losing streak with the conservatives now in control of the city, and we hope the voters choose better players who have studied offense rather than the defense players we have in the game right now.”

VOD ANALYSIS OF ORR’S REPORT WILL BE PUBLISHED SHORTLY.

Pastor Charles Williams II leads march as it takes off outside New Center McDonald’s May 10, 2013.

“WE ARE WORTH MORE!” — http://detroit15.org/.

D15 organizers estimate 400 workers walked off or did not show up

They join workers in St. Louis, New York, Chicago in national drive 

By Diane Bukowski 

May 11, 2013 

DETROIT – The bright faces of Detroit’s youth on the march March 10, to double their wages at fast food outlets, lit up the gray skies of a city battered for decades by the nation’s most vicious assault on working and poor people. The assault has included skyrocketing youth unemployment, police victimization, and incarceration.

MacDonald’s workers April Jones (l), with baby, and Tequila VanHorn (r), lead march as it takes the streets.

 The signs workers carried as they took the streets outside Detroit’s New Center MacDonald’s, after hitting five chains with one-day walk-outs, said it all: “WE ARE WORTH MORE!” 

Workers walk out at Detroit Burger King May 10, 2013.

Metro Detroit MacDonald’s, Popeye’s, Burger King, Long John Silver and Subway outlets were hit by the strikes. Fast food employees have begun a rolling national strike wave. They walked out in St. Louis May 8 and 9, and New York City and Chicago last month. 

April Jones, who works at the New Center MacDonald’s, wheeled her one-year-old baby Kristan Johnson in a stroller during the march of hundreds, chanting, “$7.40’s got to go!” and “What do we want? $15! When do we want it? NOW!” 

Detroit Popeye’s workers strike.

“We have had no raises,” she said. “I’ve worked here since 2008, and they told us there would be no raises. I leave there every day with my back and body hurting. We are doing manager’s jobs, but we still get only floor worker’s pay. I can’t see raising my child on $7.4o an hour. I have my own place. I have to pay rent and DTE, and buy food and clothing for my baby. I need $15 an hour!” 

Tequila VanHorn, 21, is expecting her first child. She works with Jones at the same MacDonald’s. 

Youth from local high schools joined the march, knowing their futures are also at stake.

“We have to fight for our rights, do what we can to survive,” she declared, speaking along with Pastors Charles Williams II and Willie J. Rideout after the march. “$7.40 is not right!  I started at the McDonald’s three years ago, and I’m supposed to be there right now. Along with no decent pay, we get no appreciation. At least if I have to work hard, if I have a bad day, let me smile knowing I can support my baby.” 

High school students including brothers James and Andrew Williams, 16 and 17, and Jerome Winbush were among dozens of other youth who joined the workers, recognizing that their futures are also at stake. 

Tequila Van Horn rouses the crowd with Pastors Charles Williams II and Willie Rideout behind her.

“This is the first time I’ve been to anything like this,” Winbush, who attends Detroit Central High School, said. “I feel it’s good. I feel that we won today.” 

Dozens of exhilarated older people, many who came of age during the movements of the 1960’s, also participated. 

The strikers are also demanding the right to unionize. Michigan was the birthplace of the union movement in the 1930’s, but last year, incredibly, it became a Right-to-Work state under the extreme right-wing leadership of Governor Rick Snyder and the majority of the state’s legislators. 

Detroit itself, which has lost over 237,500 residents due to predatory lending and foreclosures and over half its public schools, while paying billions in predatory debt to the banks, expects its Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to declare his plans for yet more assaults on its residents May 13. 

MacDonald’s worker shiields herself from rain as drummer gives rhythm to chants.

D15 is coordinating the fast food workers’ campaign in the Detroit area, according to its website at http://detroit15.org/. It has support from local ministers, the Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876, and the “Good Jobs Now!” movement.  D15 organizers estimated at least 400 workers participated in the walk-outs here. 

“There are now more than 50,000 fast-food jobs in the Detroit metro area, more than twice as many as in the auto-manufacturing sector,” says D15’s website. “Fast food jobs are projected to grow by 12.3% in the area by 2018 – more than twice as fast as the projected growth rate of the region’s workforce as a whole. But these jobs are the lowest-paying in Detroit, with many workers earning Michigan’s minimum wage of $7.40 or just above it.

Young marchers’ faces were filled with hope.

“These are billion-dollar companies that can afford to pay their employees better. When workers join together and are paid a living wage, not only will it strengthen the economy but it will also reduce crime in our neighborhoods.”

According to D15 organizers and other observers, the walk-outs in Detroit began at 6:00 a.m. when 20 McDonald’s workers at 10400 Gratiot on Detroit’s east side walked out. Management called in other workers to replace them, but they also joined the strike.  Seven workers at a Long John Silvers in suburban Warren walked out shutting down that outlet, while Subway workers at the city’s Renaissance Center did the same. Likewise, workers at a Burger King on W. Eight Mile and a Popeye’s on Grand River in Detroit also left their jobs.

Marchers take W. Grand Blvd.

The workers are demanding no retaliation and are calling on the public for mass support.

McDonald’s worker Keith Bullard, of Inkster, has started an online petition for support on MoveOn.

“This morning, I walked off my job at McDonald’s,” he said in an email to news outlets including VOD. “I’m a 29-year-old husband and a father of two. My wife can’t work because of health problems—and the $7.50 an hour I make at McDonald’s just isn’t enough to cover my family’s basic needs,” he said.

Workers say it’s hell to work at McDonald’s and other chains.

I’m not alone. All across Detroit, many more workers like me are also striking— Join us. My coworkers and I need as many folks standing up with us as possible. 

Together, we’re launching the D15 campaign—for workers, for families, and for Detroit—and standing up to the enormous corporations we work for to make sure they get a simple message: Workers like us should be paid a fair wage that lets us make ends meet.  

We’re standing up and saying it has to stop. Say you’re with us by adding your name today! Click here to sign the petition, and then pass it along to your friends.” 

Related articles:  

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174270/fast-food-strike-wave-spreads-detroit 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/fast-food-strike-detroit-protests-living-wage_n_3252944.htm 

http://www.labornotes.org/2013/05/detroit-fast-food-workers-join-strike-wave

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/09/nationwide-wave-of-fast-food-strikes-hits-st-louis/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fast-food-workers-in-detroit-joining-a-growing-wave-of-walkouts-over-wages/2013/05/09/54765852-b8e8-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

Marchers return for rally next to MacDonald’s.

From Aaron Petkov, with photos:

Big day today! Organizers are expecting the strike of fast food workers in Detroit to be the biggest in the country. Be out in New Center at 4pm tomorrow to fight for a living wage and the right to unionize!

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FAST FOOD WORKER STRIKE HITS DETROIT

May 10, 2013 at 6:51 am

By Associated Press

Detroit — Workers at a fast food restaurant on Detroit’s east side have walked off the job as part of an effort to push for higher wages.

Detroit pastor Charles Williams II says workers want $15 and hour, better working conditions and the right to unionize. The one-day protest starting Friday morning at a McDonald’s on the 10000 block of Gratiot is one of about 50 that organizers say they’ve planned around Detroit.

The D15 campaign says many workers make $7.40 an hour or just above it.

A message seeking comment from a representative of the restaurant was left Friday morning by The Associated Press.

Workers at more than 30 fast food restaurants in St. Louis walked off the job Thursday in a similar one-day strike. That followed strikes at fast food chains in New York and Chicago.