A Seattle Police officer with a baton tries to fend off protesters during a May Day anti-capitalism protest that ended with demonstrators clashing with police on Wednesday. Ted S. Warren / AP
By Eric M. Johnson, ReutersMay 1, 3013SEATTLE — Protesters clashed with police in Seattle on Wednesday as a May Day rally that began peacefully turned violent after dark, with demonstrators hurling objects at officers who responded with flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
One protester was seen using a skateboard to smash windows at a Walgreens drug store in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and others overturned trash cans and lined up newspaper display racks to block police.
LA May Day protest banner
Officers in riot gear, some riding in armored SWAT vehicles, repeatedly used the flash-bang grenades and tried to disperse the crowd.
Seattle police said that as of 9 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET), 11 adults and two juveniles had been arrested for assaults and property damage. Several people were shown on local TV stations being taken into custody.
Seattle police said in a tweet that one officer was injured by a thrown object. His condition was not immediately clear.
The violence broke out as darkness fell in Seattle following a day of May Day rallies in cities across the U.S. West that were planned by a coalition of organized labor activists, students, civil rights advocates and members of the clergy to call for an overhaul of immigration laws.
Los Angeles May Day march.
In Los Angeles, thousands of protesters marched through downtown waving American flags and carrying signs with the slogan, “Stop deportations.”
The demonstrators chanted in Spanish, “Obama! Escucha! Estamos en la lucha!” (“Obama! Listen! We are in the fight!”), as they marched down one of downtown’s main thoroughfares.
The march spanned across more than two large city blocks, and one police officer told Reuters that unofficial estimates put the size of the crowd at roughly 3,500 people. No arrests were reported.
Protesters march on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in downtown Phoenix during a May Day rally to show support for national immigration reform. Photo: Matt York
In Arizona, where a state crackdown against illegal immigration was signed into law three years ago, several hundred people joined a late-afternoon rally outside the state Capitol in Phoenix, ahead of a march through downtown.
The protests come about two weeks after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced an 844-page bill, backed by President Barack Obama, that would rewrite many U.S. immigration laws.
A centerpiece of the measure would create a path to legal status and ultimately citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
It also aims to secure the U.S. border with Mexico against illegal entry and to make it easier for industry, particularly high-tech businesses and agriculture, to hire workers from abroad when needed.
People hold a banner that reads in Spanish “Proud of our work” at the front of the May Day march to Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. AP / Ismael Francisco
Young Detroiter angrily denounces bus route cuts announced by by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing in 2011.
From Tom Barrow, 9-BARROW (922-7769),Option 4
TEXT: Keyword “BARROW” to 313131
MAY 1, 2013
DETROIT — Detroit mayoral candidate Tom Barrow today criticized the vote by the SEMCOG Board that deprived the Detroit Department of Transportation of its much-needed federal subsidy of $7 million when the panel voted 22-8 last week.
Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow and family.
When the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments voted to change its funding formula to population rather than usage, which favored ridership and the users of the bus systems, for many years of allocations, it dramatically changed the relationship between Detroit and its suburban neighbors.
“This is not the regional cooperation envisioned by even Dave Bing’s administration, this is regional theft,” declared Barrow, 64, “and as we contemplate more regionalization of Detroit’s assets, Detroiters must evaluate the benefits of this concept because the reality in this instance just stinks to high heavens.”
Prior to this decision, federal funds for DDOT maintenance were targeted to Detroit’s bus system, DDOT, with a formula that was based on bus ridership, receiving 65% of the funds due to its dominance with approximately 115,000 daily ridership; SMART (Southeast Michigan Rapid Transit) has just 36,000 riders daily.
SEMCOG Executive Director Paul Tait
The new formula is now illogically based on population, not riders, with Detroit buses now receiving less than half of its historical allocation and SMART now receiving 51 percent of federal funding, and Detroit 49 percent.
The much-touted regionalization model fails the most basic test of its concept, and that is cooperation and coordination, Barrow said.
“Here is the most likely scenario: the loss of this subsidy will force the suspension of bus lines and loss of maintenance dollars, allowing the Emergency Financial Manager to then use this as an excuse to give away the bus system to the newly created regional authority, and then raise bus fares on Detroiters” Barrow stated.
In a Barrow administration, any talk of regionalization will begin with an agreement that Detroit officials will appoint the majority of the board.
Child carries sign: Jim Crow is dead, during Dr. MLK Day march in 2011 from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.
Barrow asserted “We must always be in a position to protect our assets, our jewels, from this kind of rapacious behavior that reeks of the old South and its poll taxes, grandfather clauses and rewriting of the rules to benefit one group over another, and that will end when I am elected.”
“The essence of cooperation is mutual respect, and this decision clearly and unequivocally says to Detroiters that our suburban partners have neither respect for us as citizens and most certainly do not respect the current City leadership. That has to change or we are in for more stripping of federal dollars in the regionalization hoax that has been perpetrated against us.”
Barrow plans to address this issue in a letter to Transportation Secretary LaHood and his recently announced successor, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx.
“We cannot rely upon this present Mayor or Kevyn Orr to represent our interests in the forceful way needed that results in protecting Detroit, not surrendering it,” concluded Barrow.
Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh addresses the RTA supporters crowd in the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) office in 1001 Woodward. Transportation Riders United and regional transit supporters held a march, from Rosa Park Transit Center to the SEMCOG offices in 1001 Woodward, and birthday party including balloons and cake for the first meeting of the Regional Transit Authority with its county representatives. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)
D-DOT FUNDING CUT A DIRECT RESULT OF BING AND CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY’S COLLUSION WITH SNYDER ADMINISTRATION, FEDS
May 1, 2013
By Diane Bukowski
Detroit — Why Detroit Mayor Dave Bing or the City Council majority should express shock at the cut in D-DOT funding is beyond comprehension. Their collusion with the administration of Michigan “Ric-tator” Snyder, as well as unfortunately, President Barack Obama’s Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, opened the door for the complete dismantling of Detroit’s transportation system.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Mayor Dave Bing in Detroit Oct. 12, 2012.
LaHood came to Detroit last October to champion regionalization of transit along with Snyder and Bing, allegedly to open up the door for a light rail system. Their hidden agenda is now plainly revealed.
Bing said from the beginning that he and Synder were “joined at the hip,” while Council members Charles Pugh, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. and James Tate journeyed to Lansing to help the state draft the Public Act 4 consent agreement which opened the door to current Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. Five council members voted for that on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination April 4, 2012.
The Council majority of Pugh, Cockrel Jr., Tate, Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, and Andre Spivey has since voted to approve costly contracts with Miller Canfield, the firm which helped draft PA 4; Ernst & Young, being sued by New York and New Jersey for complicity in the downfall of Lehman Brothers in 2008; Miller Buckfire, now owned by Stifel Financial, repeatedly sued for fraud, Milliman, notorious for attacking pension systems, and finally, the crowning blow, the contract with Jones Day, Orr’s law firm. They have willingly handed over control of Detroit to the banksters who are gang raping the city.
These five Council members voted for the consent agreement; Andre Spivey joined them in other disastrous votes.
Now they want to sue to stop the de-funding of D-DOT, and guess what–ORR SAYS NO! Today, Council members Saunteel Jenkins and Gary Brown complained about cuts in the City Council’s budget which will eliminate their Detroit police security detail. They have good cause for worry. How much longer can they remain in office before Detroiters rise up in fury and exact justice for the people of the poorest city in the country?
VOD: We have begun using local advertisers to help defray the costs of publishing VOD, including quarterly web-hosting fees, and other computer, photo, and print related-costs. Please call 313-825-6126 if you are interested in running an ad such as that above. Prices are negotiable, and may be waived on behalf of progressive causes.
“Comprehensive Violence Reduction Task Force” does the opposite
Joseph may have been shot 50 times in hail of gunfire
Tests allegedly show police shot each other
By Diane Bukowski
April 29, 2013
Matthew Joseph
DETROIT – Members of the regional multi-agency “Comprehensive Violence Reduction Task Force” shot 23-year-old Matthew Joseph to death in a hail of gunfire at Linwood and Hooker on Detroit’s near west side April 2. Sources including witnesses at the scene and others familiar with the case say that he was shot as many as 50 times as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car, never exiting the vehicle.
As partially confirmed in daily media reports, they say ballistics tests show “friendly fire” was responsible for the shootings of the two Detroit police officers at the scene, who worked with the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Detroit division. They are Patrick Hill, who remains in critical condition with wounds to his head and chest, and Sgt. Joseph Pacholski, who was shot in the leg and has since been released.
Matthew Joseph’s car in between two unmarked police cars. This aerial photo was taken some time after his killing. It shows police crime tape roping off the scene and does not appear to show him still in the car, accounting for the open car door.
“The car was smashed between two police cars, and the driver was hanging off the side of his seat belt, dead,” said one neighborhood resident who was at the scene for several hours. “The gunfire sounded like New Year’s Eve, and we heard police sirens all over.”
Photos of the scene show the driver’s side window of the car smashed out by the gunfire.
“I was driving to see a relative, and the SUV that ended up in front of the victim’s car almost ran me up on the side of the road,” said another resident who stayed at the scene.
“I stopped at West Grand Boulevard and McGraw and saw them pull some guy out of a car, and lay him on the ground. Then the cop in the Tahoe took off, and there were police cars coming from everywhere. The Tahoe pushed the Magnum [car which Joseph was driving] from the front, and another black police car hit it from the back.”
VOD has since learned that the man lying on the ground actually jumped from his car prior to the police stop. He and a young woman in Joseph’s car, who has not been identified, were later arrested. He remains in custody on a probation violation, while police say the young woman, thought to be a friend of Joseph’s, was released.
“I didn’t actually see the cops getting shot,” the second witness, who estimated she was about 50 feet from the cars involved, said. “There was too much gunfire from everywhere. Then the trainees came out of the Police Academy from across the street, and started pushing us back. We stayed at least two hours, and no ambulance came to the scene to take the people out of the car the dead man was in. We waited. I wanted to see why they were letting people sit in the car so long.”
Meanwhile, the wounded officers were rushed to nearby Henry Ford Hospital.
Memorial teddy bear for Matthew Joseph at scene of his killing. Votive candles were at the base of light pole.
The second witness said police in the two cars which penned Joseph’s car in were dressed in black street clothes, and that the cars were unmarked as well. She said she also saw at least 20 Detroit police cars, and “a few” State police cars at the scene.
“The Detroit police cars came flying down the street, about as many black unmarked cars as blue and white cars,” she said. “The man who was killed was still in his car. I don’t think he ever got out of that car. One lady was at the scene crying and fighting to get down there, saying ‘They killed my babies,’ but the police stopped her.”
Police allege they were pursuing Joseph as a suspect in a March 28 killing at the McNichols Riviera Motel. Daily media has reported that the victim was a crack cocaine dealer who was the son of a retired Detroit police officer. There is, however, no arrest warrant for Joseph on file at Detroit’s 36th District Court.
Neither police nor the media have released the names of the man killed at the motel, who was reported to be 23 years old, or that of his father. During a visit to the motel recently to locate witnesses, VOD observed a black and white car with no police insignia in the parking lot, but was not able to obtain the information requested from those present. Daily media has reported that “nefarious activity” regularly takes place at the motel.
Glass with candle and Matthew Joseph’s name at site of memorial.
The day after Joseph’s killing, the daily media blew up with stories on Joseph’s criminal background, saying outright that he shot the police officers and painting him as a “bad seed” from his childhood on.
One report said, “When Detroit police officers stopped a car being driven by a homicide suspect on the city’s west side Tuesday evening, a woman in the car, a police source said, cried out: ‘He’s got a gun!’ The driver opened the car door and began firing at police, striking an officer in the head and a sergeant in the leg, a source said. Police fired back, a source said, killing the suspect, whose hand was reportedly still gripping his gun after he was shot.”
Officer Patrick Hill
Daily media reported later that it was likely that Officer Hill, at least, was the victim of “friendly fire.” At that point, Detroit Police Chief Chester Logan announced that an investigation by the Michigan State Police was underway. However, they themselves are not a disinterested party, having been involved at the scene of Joseph’s death. They are also members of the “Comprehensive Violence Reduction Task Force.”
The daily media stories included reports from Joseph’s Third Judicial Circuit Court files and from his juvenile records as well, which normally are not open to the public or media.
VOD requested Joseph’s adult criminal files weeks ago from the court clerk’s office, but to date has not received a call that they are available. VOD can only surmise that police immediately provided the records to the daily media reporters involved to justify the shooting, painting Joseph as an armed and dangerous thug.
Close-up of Matthew Joseph’s car after his body was removed, shows window shot out.
Records located on-line show that Joseph, born 12/29/89, served time in the state prison system for what appear to be two incidents, on Dec. 19 and Dec. 23, 2006, involving charges of armed robbery and felony firearms. He was sentenced on May 22, 2o07 by Third Judicial Court Judge Bruce Morrow to terms of up to 15 years. He was paroled after five and a half years on Oct. 2, 2012.
VOD also requested a copy of Joseph’s autopsy report, which is a public record. In the past, VOD has received such reports in a timely fashion without problems. However, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office responded to VOD’s Freedom of information Act request as follows.
“The above request has been received and reviewed. After a diligent search for the requested records, I have determined and certify that the records do not exist. An autopsy can take 30-90 days or longer to complete, depending on the length of time for test results to be received. Therefore, your request is denied. We encourage you to contact the undersigned at the Office of the Medical Examiner in 30 days to check on the status.”
Police training academy across the street from site of Matthew Joseph’s death was once a public Detroit high school.
Vanessa Denha-Garmo, the spokeswoman for Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, emailed the response, but did not respond to a request for a statement on the cause of Joseph’s death.
Daily media reports, however, quoted the Examiner as saying that Joseph died from “multiple gunshot wounds,” contradicting an original police report that he was shot once. A source familiar with the case told VOD that Joseph was shot 50 times.
Attempts to speak with Joseph’s family have so far been unsuccessful. VOD has learned that they may be filing a wrongful death lawsuit in his case. Attorneys frequently advise clients in such instances not to speak with the media.
(VOD: it is the policy of this newspaper not to name witnesses cited in police brutality case stories, due to the potential of retaliation. This policy is based on the author’s extensive experience covering such cases. Meanwhile, statements from witnesses in this story are being further validated. Other witnesses are asked to contact VOD at 313-825-6126.)
Photos from President Leamon Wilson’s funeral program.
By Diane Bukowski
April 27, 2012
DETROIT – A large crowd including Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) bus mechanics and drivers, and city and union leaders, saluted Leamon Wilson, president of AFSCME Local 312 for 20 years, as a “warrior” and “hero” at his funeral April 15, at Kadesh Missionary Baptist Church.
Leamon E. Wilson and his mother Gail (McCullers) Wilson leave church after ceremony April 15, 2013.
Kathy Woodyard said President Wilson carried on his family’s legacy.
“Leamon’s grandfather was a coal miner in bloody Harlan County Kentucky, and his father broke the color barrier in the U.S. Marine Corps, receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor,” Woodyard said. “He stood and fought for people who couldn’t fight for themselves, and he has instilled in us a commitment to community and responsibility.”
Leamon’s wife Gail i(nee McCullers) is an attorney who met her husband when she represented Local 312’s members. They have one son, Leamon E. Wilson, who is starting college this year after winning an AFSCME Council 25 scholarship by penning a moving tribute to his father and the union struggle.
Leamon E. Wilson’s tribute to his father and his union legacy, from funeral program.
President Wilson passed April 8 at the age of 55, after years of struggle for his mechanics, and to maintain self-determination for Detroiters and control and adequate funding of DDOT. His efforts and those of other city and union leaders stalled the creation of a suburban-controlled “regional authority” for decades, saving the livelihoods of many DDOT workers and limiting service cuts son’s essay.
Retired Local 312 bus mechanic Anthony Brown said he hired in the same day as President Wilson in 1980.
Members of Local 312 with DDOT bus decorated in their President’s honor.
“Before 90 days, he told our fellow members that they were planning to privatize DDOT,” Brown said. “I watched Leamon as he read law books and got any local, state and federal material he could get his hands on, preparing himself to take a position on the grievance committee. There are many soldiers who go to battle, but what you really want is a warrior like Leamon. If you worked for DDOT in the last 20 years, you owe your jobs to this man. I got suspended for 30 days pending discharge five times, and he saved my job, my life, my marriage and my home.”
After the city’s unilateral imposition of “City Employment Terms” under the 2012 PA 4 “consent agreement,” Wilson protected his membership by filing suit under the federal Urban Mass Transportation Act, which requires governments receiving federal transportation funds to honor collective bargaining agreements and otherwise protect workers.
Flower bearers including (l to r), retired AFSCME Local Pres. Elmira Willis, Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, and AFSCME D-DOT Local 214 President June Nickelberry (4th from left) outside church.
One Local 312 officer told VOD, “Leamon would file suit at the drop of a hat.” For that purpose, he retained militant attorney George Washington for his local, rather than depending on more conservative firms utilized by AFSCME Council 25.
Elder Carl Graham, now a D-DOT driver, said, “If you were a steward, he made you look extremely well, because you could tell management you would call him. He lived and breathed Local 312, and we will keep his legacy going forth. WE WILL NOT GIVE UP EASILY.”
Pallbearers included many Local 312 members and officers.
Many other members related similar personal stories. City Councilwomen JoAnn Watson and Brenda Jones, AFSCME International Vice-President Larry Roehrig, AFSCME Presidents June Nickelberry of D-DOT Local 214, also President of the City of Detroit Presidents’ Council, and John Riehl of DWSD Local 207, among others, also gave heartfelt tributes and presented resolutions in honor of their fallen comrade.
“I wouldn’t be in office without Leamon Wilson,” Councilwoman Watson said. “He helped me. He stayed on after everyone else had left council meetings on privatization contracts to continue the battle. He fought like Joshua. He was strong and courageous, trying to bring his people to the promised land.”
She said later that Leamon E. Wilson worked in her office as well.
Pres. Leamon Wilson’s obituary pages.
Attorney George Washington recalled that President Wilson always thanked him when they won a legal victory, but Washington said that President Wilson was really responsible for those victories.
Councilwoman Brenda Jones (r) and others watch as pallbearers take Pres. Wilson to his final rest.
“He was a brilliant and capable man. way more so than people with fancy degrees and making way more money while they run down Detroit,” Washington said. “He was a man who represented everything great about the city. Although we can never replace him, we have got to go on with the battle, that’s what he would have wanted us to do.”
Despite the heroic battle waged by Leamon and others, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed Public Act 387 into law during the state legislature’s infamous 2012 lame duck session. The Act created a Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority (RTA) with a 10-member board, only one appointed from Detroit, although DDOT is the largest bus system in the region. All federal funds and other grants will now flow through the authority. Click on RTA mcl-Act-387-of-2012 for full text of RTA Act.
The majority of D-DOT’s funding, about $80 million, comes from the federal government.
D-DOT riders will see more cuts to service under the RTA.
One Local 312 member told VOD that in the last months of President Wilson’s life, all he could talk about was the battle to stop the RTA. He had retired from his city job, but continued as Local 312 President, planning to leave only after his term expired. President Wilson kept his failing health and eyesight from the view of everyone, particularly management, as he continued the battle. VOD contacted him numerous times over the last year for comments and documents related to its stories on D-DOT and the dismantling of Detroit, and he never failed to provide what was needed.
Shortly after President Wilson’s death, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) voted April 26 to transfer $7 million in federal funding from DDOT to the Suburban Mobility Transportation Authority (SMART), although DDOT has three times as many riders as SMART. The deal was part of a proposed permanent change of the federal funding formula for the region.
Originally, Detroit got 65 percent and the outlying areas received 35 percent based on the larger ridership and size of D-DOT. Now, the RTA is proposing the change the formula to 51 percent for the suburbs and 49 percent for Detroit.
Earlier, 30 D-DOT buses were also given to SMART.
At the RTA’s first meeting, they voted to hire the Miller-Canfield law firm to represent them, the same firm whose attorney Michael McGee co-authored the original “Dictator Act” PA 4 and advised Bing and the Detroit City Council on the disastrous consent agreement. Such anti-Detroit actions are likely to be repeated many times over under the new RTA, ironically vindicating President Wilson’s life’s work
Many “liberals” supported the RTA. The Huffington Post celebrated its first meeting. Other supporters included Transportation Riders United (TRU), MOSES, and even some members of Occupy Detroit. Sponsors of the bills which led to the RTA included Democratic state legislators Sens. Bert Johnson (D-Detroit) and Rebecca Warren (D-Ann Arbor), and Reps. Fred Durhal (D-Detroit), Thomas Stallworth (D-Detroit), and Phil Cavanagh (D-Redford), among others.
Before one City Council session, a TRU member loudly blamed D-DOT bus mechanics for the disastrous bus service cuts enacted by Mayor Dave Bing in 2011 and 2012, and heard VOD’s equally loud approbation in response. President Wilson strongly spoke out on this matter at another City Council public hearing, shown in video below.
President Wilson and his mechanics have long complained to city management about cutbacks in their workforce, costly outsourcing of repair work to out-of-state agencies, and the disastrous route cuts that took place after Bing outsourced management of D-DOT. President Wilson helped VOD expose Bill Nojay, who filled the position of Deputy Director under the outsourced management, for violating the Hatch Act when he ran for office in New York State. Nojay is a rabid right-winger who ran a racist talk show from his home town in New York.
Former Detroit COO Chris Brown disappeared from view after Pres. Wilson helped expose the role of racist Bill Nojay in DDOT.
When Nojay left Detroit under the pressure in August, 2012, President Wilson exulted, “That racist is gone!”
The federal Office of the Special Counsel recently refused to find Nojay, Bing, or former Detroit COO Chris Brown guilty under that Act after VOD filed charges based largely on documentation President Wilson supplied. However, Brown, who was everywhere running the city’s business previously and widely hated by city workers and residents, suddenly dropped from view after the exposes, another victory attributable to President Wilson.
Keith Davis, a cousin of President Wilson’s, is also Vice-President of UAW Local 2334, representing City of Detroit Sanitary Chemists.
“We collaborated on many endeavors with Locals 312 and 207,” Davis said. “A union is the sum of all its parts. Management always seems to want to blame the workers for its screw-ups. But he was a warrior, and now we must fight for him. No guts, no glory.”
Jon Miller with fellow Local 312 member after funeral.
Ronald Carter said, “I knew Leamon for 20 years, and we always talked politics. We talked about how every year the so-called movers and shakers would go up to Mackinac Island and party, the wolves that put profits before the people. They kill everything, take everything, and give nothing. They come to us with their hands closed. But we are the fighters, and we will follow in Leamon’s footsteps.”
Later, Local 312 grievance committee person Jon Miller told VOD that Local 312 has a militant history, beginning with its founding in 1942. He said he and President Wilson interviewed former AFSCME Council 77 President Lloyd Simpson before his death. Simpson told them that he was the first Black mechanic to hire into the local, and white workers walked out when he was moved to the engine rebuild floor.
The late AFSCME Local 457 President Hazel Edwards.
“But later, two white workers came to him and asked him to run for steward,” Miller said. “In 1946, Local 312 members voted to affiliate with the United Public Workers of America (UPWA), which was later driven out of the AFL-CIO during the red scare.”
AFSCME Local 26, representing DPW workers, had similar roots, originating in the UPWA. The AFSCME International was instrumental in ousting the UPWA. Later, AFSCME Council 77, representing only Detroit locals, was subsumed into Michigan AFSCME Council 25, amid much opposition including that of former AFSCME Local 457 President Hazel Edwards, a heroic leader who fought against the privatization of Detroit’s only public hospital, Detroit General.
From Diane: I will always remember my dear friend Leamon Wilson and his support for me as I battled false charges related to the murderous State Police chase which resulted in the deaths of James Willingham and Jeffrey Frazier on the day Pres. Barack Obama was elected, Nov. 4, 2008.
Here, Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, UAW Local 2334 Pres. Dave Sole, and myself at defense rally in the AFSCME Local 312 hall. President Leamon Wilson opened his hall to us and spent hours at my trial waiting to testify as a character witness. I deeply mourn his passing, as I mourned the passing of James Willingham, Jeffery Frazier, and the continued assault on the people of Detroit.
James Willingham and Jeffrey Frazier, whose families have never received justice for their deaths.
LONG LIVE LEAMON WILSON, PRESIDENT OF AFSCME LOCAL 312, AND A WARRIOR FOR THE PEOPLE!
Related article which has links to all recent VOD articles involving Warrior President Leamon Wilson of AFSCME Local 312, as well as clear version of Leamon E. Wilson’s tribute to his beloved father.
Also see the following which detail some of the actions President Wilson took on behalf of his members and the residents of Detroit over the years. In addition to these, under his leadership, Local 312 was at the forefront of struggles for affirmative action and other progressive causes.
By BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Wed, 04/24/2013
Matthew Joseph, killed by Detroit police April 2, 2013.
“Americans are like spoiled children, whining over their suffering, while showing no empathy for anyone else’s.” Worse, they give the OK to kill other people’s children all across the non-white world. They are easily frightened, throwing away their civil liberties at the drop of a hat, yet generous in insane ways, sending $20 million to Boston without “knowing who needed it or for what purpose.”
“We have been propagandized to believe that some lives, white Americans’, are more valuable than others.”
Detroit and state police cars at Linwood and Hooker in Detroit April 2 after officers shot and killed 23-year-old Matthew Joseph under suspicious circumstances. Media reports indicated “friendly fire” was involved in the shooting of one cop, and that Joseph was being pursued as a suspect in the killing of another cop’s drug-dealer son. Joseph was shot multiple times.
Every year, 4,600 Americans are killed in work place related accidents. Every 28 hours [6] a black person is killed by police, corrections officers, security guards or vigilantes. Every year more than 30,000 people are killed by gun violence in this country. The odds of being killed by a terrorist are only 1 in 20 million.
These statistics are rarely mentioned and never had a chance to be addressed after two bombs were exploded during the Boston marathon. Death under horrific but commonplace circumstances attracts scant media attention or political action. Acts labeled as terrorism, which are unlikely to kill anyone, bring an inordinate amount of hysteria among the populace and cynical attention from press and politicians.
Texas fertilizer plant after explosion, which killed 14 people.
Just two days after the Boston marathon a fertilizer plant in West, Texas exploded, killing 14 people, most of them the much worshipped “first responders.” The risk of dying in an industrial accident is far greater than the odds of being killed by a terrorist, but no matter. The people were whipped into a frenzy and told to cast their eyes in the place where they should pay less attention rather than more.
It is frightening that the risks which Americans are subjected to on a daily basis are ignored as if they are unwanted background noise. Some of the passivity is understandable. Black people in particular are able to function in large part because the ever present risk of stop and frisk, false arrest, and police brutality are difficult to bear. There is a thin line between being conscious and losing one’s mind.
“The odds of being killed by a terrorist are only 1 in 20 million.”
In 2011, Libyan counter-revolutionaries supported by the U.S. and NATO slaughtered tens of thousands of Libyans, targeting in particular Black Libyans like this man who was later killed.
All Americans’ behavior is understandable if one acknowledges that we are constantly subjected to propaganda of various kinds. We have been propagandized to believe that some lives, white Americans’, are more valuable than others, namely anyone not white nor from the United States. There is no other way to explain why the government’s killing of thousands of people abroad is met with a shrug, if it is acknowledged at all. Americans are like spoiled children, whining over their suffering, while showing no empathy for anyone else’s. They feel that only their victimization is worthy of note, and in fact many of them support their government’s acts of violence carried out around the world. Continue reading →
Now these are the stories you didn’t see on CNN and the evening news. Coming into your homes and pulling you out at gunpoint.
This is what fascism looks like. Please like and share this widely…just incredible.
The person taking this video also risked being shot and/or arrested.
Now I want to hear from some of my “liberal’ friends how they can justify and rationalize this. Imagine this in your neighborhood.
Published on Apr 20, 2013
WATERTOWN, MA — On Friday, April 19, 2013, during a manhunt for a bombing suspect, police and federal agents spent the day storming people’s homes and performing illegal searches. While it was unclear initially if the home searches were voluntary, it is now crystal clear that they were absolutely NOT voluntary. Police were filmed ripping people from their homes at gunpoint, marching the residents out with their hands raised in submission, and then storming the homes to perform their illegal searches.
This was part of a larger operation that involved total lockdown of the suburban neighborhood to Boston. Roads were barricaded and vehicle traffic was prohibited. A No-Fly Zone was declared over the town. People were “ordered” to stay indoors. Businesses were told not to open. National Guard soldiers helped with the lockdown, and were photographed checking IDs of pedestrians on the streets. All the while, police were performing these disgusting house-to-house searches. https://www.facebook.com/PoliceStateUSA
One of many photos alleged to be of black ops groups waiting at Boston Marathon finish line before explosion. This shows what Infowars says is the Craft Communications Van.
Miami — A U.S. military spokesman says 84 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay are on a hunger strike.
Prisoners inside Guantanamo.
Army Lt. Col. Samuel House says four hunger strikers are in a hospital on the U.S. base in Cuba for observation. That’s down from six in the hospital a day earlier.
Officials and lawyers for the men have disagreed over the number of hunger strikers since the protest over their indefinite confinement began in February. Lawyers have said nearly all of the 166 prisoners are refusing meals.
The number meeting the military’s definition of hunger strike has steadily grown since guards raided a camp April 13 and moved prisoners from a communal section into single cells.
House said Tuesday that 17 of the 84 strikers are being fed liquid nutrients to prevent dangerous weight loss.
US War Crime: Guantanamo hunger strikers cleared of wrongdoing bloodied in US forces’ pre-dawn raid on them
Reporters granted access to Guantanamo Bay camp prisoners of war, at least five of whom sustained injuries by U.S. forces in a military pre-dawn raid on them Saturday, have been denied seeing the detainees, according to a reporter there early Tuesday afternoon.
Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, one of few reporters covering the three-month Guantanamo hunger strike crisis, is among those who arrived there Monday at what has been dubbed the Obama Death Camp.
Amnesty International protest of continued operation of Guantanamo prison.
According to Rosenberg’s tweets Tuesday, she and the other reporters are still being denied access to the detainees but were told that five of the POWs there were injured in the secret operation that the military conducted on them Saturday.
“Here at #Guantanamo media’s gotten 45 minutes with command team but have yet to see a single detainee or makeshift weapon seized Saturday,” Rosenberg tweeted at 12:38 EST Tuesday, a day after arriving there in anticipation of interviewing the captives.
She briefly reports on injuries sustained in the raid on the prisoners Saturday.
“Five detainees were wounded in raid including captive who military says intentionally whacked his head on cell door, required 3 stitches,” Rosenberg tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “Another detainee had to have rubber pellets removed from his flank. Two more suffered abrasions; fifth had swollen right elbow.”
“Two helmeted guards suffered head injuries in raid, two got splashed by captive’s blood. None hospitalized..” Rosenberg says in her tweets on Tuesday.
“Chief guard: #Guantanamo guards clad in riot gear stormed cellblocks in 12-troop units, two armed with shotguns equipped with rubber ammo,” she stated just after noon Tuesday.
Secrecy remains at Obama Death Camp
Guard with prisoner inside Gitmo.
Earlier Tuesday, Rosenberg had said that the reporters, who arrived there Monday, would not be allowed to speak to detainees, only “listen” and that they were denied even that on Monday.
“Military here has downgraded expectations that we’ll see much of anything. Program they handed us emphasizes listening, not seeing,” Rosenberg had tweeted earlier Tuesday.
That was followed by tweeted descriptions of the US military’s bloody raid Saturday on the captives that also included, “Guantanamo Commanders. Two helmeted guards suffered head injuries in raid, two got splashed by captive’s blood. None hospitalized.”
Award-winning film, Camino a Guantanamo (The Road to Guantanamo)
According to another Rosenberg tweet at 12:09 P.M. EST, the detention center will not disclose detainee identities but it says today’s hunger strike figures are at 45 of the 166 captives and thirteen are being tube fed to keep them alive.
Accuracy of prison staff accounts regarding the secret raid remain a secret.
“At today’s brief, the chief #Guantanamo MP provided a confusing, inarticulate account of detainee resistance during Saturday’s raid,” she tweeted at 1:18 P.M. EST.
Tells Russian interviewer FBI was monitoring older son; FBI admits it
Both parents say internet use was monitored
By Timothy Heritage
MOSCOW, April 20 (Reuters) – One of the two ethnic Chechens suspected by U.S. officials of being behind the Boston Marathon bombings had been under FBI surveillance for at least three years, his mother said.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the English-language Russia Today state television station in a phone interview, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters, that she believed her sons were innocent and had been framed.
Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnev.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar was captured after a day-long manhunt.
“He (Tamerlan) was ‘controlled’ by the FBI, like, for three to five years,” she said, speaking in English and using the direct English translation of a word in Russian that means monitored.
“They knew what my son was doing, they knew what sites on the Internet he was going to,” she said in what Russia Today described as a call from Makhachkala, where she lives in Russia’s Dagestan region after returning from the United States.
Tsarnaeva echoed the boys’ father, Anzor, who said on Friday that he believed they had been framed. Both suggested in separate interviews that the FBI had made no secret of the fact that at least one of the brothers was being watched.
Scene of carnage at Boston bombing/AP photo. Is it possible the U.S. government, which has slaughtered millions across the world in ongoing wars, set up this massacre as well?
“I do not believe that my sons could have planned and organised the terrorist act, because they knew U.S. national security services were keeping an eye on them,” Anzor Tsarnaev told Russia’s Channel One television.
“They (the security services) said ‘We know what you eat, what you read on the Internet’,” he said, without making clear how the security officers had made contact.
In her interview with Russia Today, Tsarnaeva suggested FBI officers had visited her home when she still lived in the United States and told her that Tamerlan “was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him.”
“It is really, really a hard thing to hear. And being a mother, what I can say is that I am really sure, I am, like, 100 percent sure, that this is a set-up,” she said.
She did not say whether the FBI had started to take an interest in Tamerlan although she also referred to the security services’ interest in what Internet sites he visited.
U.S. government officials have said the brothers were not under surveillance as possible militants.
But the FBI said in a statement on Friday that in 2011 it interviewed Tamerlan at the request of a foreign government, which it did not identify.
It said the matter was closed because interviews with Tamerlan and family members “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign”.
The FBI statement was the first evidence that the family had come to security officials’ attention after they emigrated to the United States from Dagestan about a decade ago.
It is not clear when Tsarnaeva and her husband left the United States. (Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Military-style manhunt for bombing suspect in Boston suburbs April 19, 2013. News media are championing paramilitary forces involved, saying this incident should convince U.S. public to cede their civil liberties in some circumstances.
FBI interviewed dead Boston bombing suspect years ago
CBS News/ April 19, 2013, 6:44 PM
The FBI admitted Friday they interviewed the now-deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years ago and failed to find any incriminating information about him.
As first reported by CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev, the elder brother of at-large bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, at the request of a foreign government to see if he had any extremist ties, but failed to find any linkage.
Both Tsarnaev brothers were legal permanent residents of the U.S. There is no evidence so far that either brother received any tactical training.
CBS News correspondent John Miller reports it is likely Russia asked to have the elder Tsarnaev vetted because of suspected ties to Chechen extremists.
Formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe
The FBI is likely to have run a background check, running his name through all the relevant databases, including those of other agencies, checking on his communications and all of his overseas travel. Miller reports that culminated in a sit-down interview where they probably asked him a lot of questions about his life, his contacts, his surroundings. All of this was then written in a report and sent it to the requesting government.
This is an issue they’ve had in the past. They interviewed Carlos Bledsoe in Little Rock, Ark., before he shot up an Army recruiting station in 2009. They were also looking into Major Hasan Nadal before the Fort Hood shootings.
Major Hasan Nidal
However, the FBI has maintained in those incidents that they took all the steps they were asked to and were allowed to under the law.
Although the FBI initially denied contacting Tsarnaev, the brothers’ mother said they had in an interview with Russia Today.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said her son got involved in “religious politics” about five years ago, and never told her he was involved in “jihad.”
She insisted the FBI “knew what he was doing on Skype” and that they counseled him “every step of the way.”
Tsarnaeva, who is a U.S. citizen currently in Russia, told Russia Today the FBI had called her with concerns about her elder son, although she did not specify when exactly she was contacted.
“They used to come [to our] home, they used to talk to me … they were telling me that he was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him,” Tsarnaeva said. “They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites… they were controlling him, they were controlling his every step…and now they say that this is a terrorist act!”
Some of numerous cases where FBI actively participated as agent provocateurs, targeting poor Black communities:
LIBERTY CITY SEVEN, FLORIDA
“The charges centered around the group’s belief that they were being offered money by someone in Yemen to help their mission in Liberty City, provided they supported the al-Qaeda jihad. The FBI agents represented themselves as representatives of al-Qaeda (but who were actually undercover FBI agents), and persuaded Batiste to provide plans for a stated intention to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago, the FBI field office in Miami, and other targets. Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of InvestigationJohn S. Pistole described the group’s plot as more “aspirational than operational”; the group did not have the means to carry out attacks on such targets. The group had no weapons and did not seek weapons when they were offered. The group had no communication with any actual al-Qaeda or other terrorist operatives.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_City_Seven
IMAM LUQMAN ABDULLAH, DETROIT
Imam Luqman Ameen Adbullah Photo provided by Muslim Alliance of North America
“Family members of Imam Luqman Abdullah, along with religious and civil rights leaders, have reacted with shock and anger to the U.S. Department of Justice’s exoneration of four FBI agents who shot the Imam to death Oct. 28, 2009.
Imam Abdullah, leader of the Masjid El-Haqq mosque in Detroit, sustained 21 gunshot wounds, a broken arm, and numerous lacerations to his face and upper body, which one medical examiner said resulted from police dog bites. Sixty-six federal agents, as well as local and international law enforcement officials, were involved in the raid which ended with his death. . . .
The raid culminated a two-year FBI undercover investigation of the Imam’s mosque, which turned up no terrorism-related charges, only petty theft and weapons-related violations. The indictment was issued the day before the Imam’s death and was based largely on reports by FBI-paid infiltrators of alleged conversations with the Imam and his followers. Almost none of of the conversations were taped.”
By Eric M. Johnson, Reuters May 1, 3013SEATTLE — Protesters clashed with police in Seattle on Wednesday as a May Day rally that began peacefully turned violent after dark, with demonstrators hurling objects at officers who responded with flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
