NATIONAL JOURNEY FOR EDUCATION JUSTICE, 2012, WASHINGTON D.C.
On September 20, 2012, youth, parents, and community activists from across the United States converged in the Nation’s Capitol to demand an end to school closures and corporate reform policies that violate the civil rights of poor, working class, communities of color, students with disabilities, and English learners. FIGHT BACK NOW!!
Cities: Baltimore, MD, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, Eupora, MS, New York, Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, New Orleans, LA, Wilmington, DE, Washington, DC.
From Keep the Vote No Takeover leader Helen Moore: “Washington has agreed to a national hearing on education on January29th in DC.” Click on Journey for Justice for flier which details demands of Sept. 20 march as well as contact information for Detroit sponsors.
DETROIT– The Detroit City Council voted 6-3 to postpone an Oct. 18 hearing on Belle Isle indefinitely, two days before it was to happen. Free Detroit-No Consent, Hood Research, and We the People had blanketed the city with fliers, going to Wayne County Community College campuses, churches and other venues, according to one member.
Valerie Glenn displays photos of Belle Isle to City Council at hearing Sept. 25, 2012.
The City Clerk’s office posted the hearing on Oct. 12. It was to be sponsored by the council’s Neighborhood and Community Services Committee, chaired by Councilman James Tate. During public comment at the beginning of the Oct. 16 meeting, Valerie Glenn of Free Detroit-No Consent thanked Tate and other members for holding the hearing. No one told her they were considering canceling it.
“We haven’t had a formal discussion about the actual [state lease] proposal we would be voting on,” Tate said later on Oct. 16. “Questions have been sent to the state, and deliberation needs to be done. It is unnecessary at this point. I voted no on this [hearing] in committee and am voting no on it now.”
City Councilman James Tate, Oct. 15, 2012.
Tate said in an earlier on-line chat on freep.com, “Belle Isle is an asset, but it is not a core service of ours. I have been and remain open to any and all suggestions (and assistance) on how we can improve the park.”
The six who voted to postpone the meeting were (in alpabetical order), Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, Charles Pugh, Andre Spivey, James Tate and JoAnn Watson.
“It would just generate more confusion,” Jenkins said. “There is already fighting and correcting inaccurate reports that Council is voting down a Belle Isle lease proposal.”
Councilwoman JoAnn Watson earlier co-sponsored a rally against a state takeover of Belle Isle.
Councilwoman JoAnn Watson listens to City General Services Dept. Director Brad Dick at hearing on Belle Isle Sept. 25, 2012.
“The request for a public hearing had nothing to do with it had to be this week,” she said. “It was disrespectful not to check with us. We ought to have all proposals shared with all our colleagues [first]. Everybody needs to have time to review all the proposals, then yes, have a hearing scheduled for the public. We can look at all proposals and what’s behind the green door, including why not just manage it ourselves. We also need to discuss the matter with experts including experts on historic designation.” (See story below which indicates that Belle Isle is on the National Register of Historic Places.)
Proposals other than a revised lease which have been raised by council members include the city’s 2005 Belle Isle Master Plan, and private proposals, including one from an agency which wants to bring the Bob-Lo boat back.
Councilman Kwame Kenyatta Aug. 7, 2012
“I requested the public hearing,” said Councilman Kwame Kenyatta, who voted to hold it as planned. “There was nothing in writing that it was to discuss the state proposal. I had asked the Mayor to set up a committee to discuss the various proposals to look at how Belle Isle should go forward. We have in committee discussed a number of proposals to take the six million dollars off table, and leave the island open to community without a fee. . . A public hearing is for the public to speak on any issue of the day.”
The Bing administration has alleged that it costs the city $6 million annually to operate Belle Isle, although the cost that appeared in last year’s budget is much less.
Councilman Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., who voted to continue with the hearing, agreed with Kenyatta that the hearing was to be a broad discussion for the community.
Councilwoman Brenda Jones also voted to go ahead with the hearing, but said she would not be able to attend due to a prior engagement.
(R to L) DEGC CEO George Jackson, Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis, State DNR Director Keith Creaugh, M-DOT DIrector Kirk Stuedle try to sell Belle Isle lease to Council.
Allowed Sept. 25 presentation by state, DEGC, Bing administration
Brown, Tate, Jenkins, Cockrel, Jr. others considering revisions
By Diane Bukowski
Oct. 17, 2012
DETROIT— The unexpected cancellation of the City Council Oct. 18 committee hearing on Belle Isle, described in the story above, came in the wake of a Sept. 25 Council discussion which showed many members inclined toward considering a revised “lease” of the island to the state.
Gary Brown at Council Oct. 15, 2012.
“All parties involved need a clear understanding of whether it is the will of the body to move forward to negotiate changes to the lease, or just shut it down,” Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown said at the beginning of the Sept. 25 discussion. “If there’s no support for a lease under any circumstances, then a discussion is a waste of time.”
Councilwoman Brenda Jones asked that the matter be referred back to committee to hear other proposals including a previous Belle Isle Master Plan.
Councilwoman JoAnn Watson noted the council was still waiting for an opinion from Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon regarding the legality of the “lease,” since state law requires an assessment of the value of any municipal property prior to a sale or lease. No such assessment has been done.
Councilman Kwame Kenyatta boycotted Sept. 25 discussion on Belle Isle lease.
The proposed ‘lease’ is actually a grant, since it charges the state no rent for a 30-90 year period, like the Detroit Yacht Club’s occupation of Belle Isle land for $1 a year.
Councilman Kwame Kenyatta, who opposes any lease, boycotted the discussion.
The Council moved ahead anyway with a presentation from Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) CEO George Jackson, Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis, State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Keith Creagh, former DNR Director and current advisor to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Rodney Stokes, Michigan Department of Transportation (M-DOT) Director Kirk Stuedle, Detroit General Services Director Brad Dick, and other officials.
During the discussion, several Council members said they supported the concept of the lease, with revisions including the hiring of Detroit residents and businesses.
Council President Charles Pugh
Pugh said, “I would be willing to vote for the right lease, not just any lease. I want to hear the other proposals.” Cockrel, Jr. said the concept needs “further discussion,” but that he wants to see other aspects of the controversial Financial Stability [consent] agreement effectuated first.
Tate said, “I believe the majority of the body is willing to entertain the proposal, but we just don’t want it shoved down our throats. There is a problem with trust and respect.”
No federal agency was at the table, although Belle Isle is listed on the federal National Registry of Historic Places.(Go to http://detroit1701.org/Belle%20Isle.html from that registry, which includes an inspiring description of the island as one of the most beautiful venues in the country.) It is also listed on the State of Michigan Registry. Previously, the U.S. government had to approve the building of the MacArthur Bridge, according to old Common Council records. The U.S. also operates a Coast Guard facility on the island which now lists the Office of Homeland Security on its sign, since Belle Isle is a national border property.
Belle Isle Conservatory and Aquarium; photo from National Register of Historic Places.
There is also no inclusion of the federal government in the proposed lease document. For full lease with attachments, click on Proposed Belle Isle lease with attachments. The city has published the lease without attachments on its website, and did not provide Council with them until the Sept. 25 hearing. Lewis said Bing himself did not have them at the time of his press conference with Michigan Governor Synder announcing the proposed lease.
At no point in the discussion did representatives from the state commit to spend any dollar amount on the Island, although they did indicate their interest in issuing bonds. Lewis said that a 30-year initial lease is necessary to obtain bond money. Creagh said the state would possibly issue a $20 million bond.
Councilwomen Saunteel Jenkins (l) and JoAnn Watson at Sept. 25, 2012 hearing on Belle Isle.
Watson said, however, that under the 2005 Belle Isle Master Plan, the city had already committed to obtaining $248 million through bond sales for park improvements.
“It is a wonderful Master Plan, with a funding strategy to raise the money and make Belle Isle a revenue-producing entity, with sponsors and private contractors paying the city.”
Councilman Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. commented that the two 30-year renewals are virtually automatic, and that he expects the city will have an economic recovery prior to the end of the first 30 years.
Tyrone Travis of Free Detroit-No Consent and the Coalition to Stop Privatization and Save Our City earlier listed $272 million in bond issues related to Belle Isle that are still being paid by Detroiters through the year 2039. (See box and click on Tyrone 9 17 12. )
Creagh said, “The DNR does parks, and does it well. We clean restrooms and pick up the trash every day. We have foresters, fishery experts, biologists, and hydrologists who are experts.”
He said the city and state would jointly develop a security plan, with state troopers and park rangers (who are also troopers, according to the state website) patrolling the park.
Charles Pugh and Gary Brown questioned the sensitivity of state troopers, who are mostly non-Detroit residents and mostly white, to the needs of Detroiters utilizing Belle Isle.
Rick Olson sat in audience during hearing; he proposed a gate to bar entrance to Belle Isle after 10 p.m.
“There is a proposal from the DNR for a six-week high impact plan involving putting up a security gate to close the park after 10 p.m,” Watson said. “I presume Gov. [Rick] Sndyer’s name would be on it.” Creagh said that DNR Parks Director Rick Olsen came up with the plan, but that it was no longer being considered.
Other Council members expressed concern regarding whether state park regulations would accommodate events like family re-unions and picnics on the island.
Stuedle said the proposal involves the jurisdictional transfer of all Belle Isle roads from E. Grand Blvd. over the bridge onto the island, making them into state “trunklines,” despite the state’s contention that the city would continue to own Belle Isle under the agreement. The transfer would be for the “life of the lease,” Stuedle said.
He added that any federal or state grants for the roadways “will stay with the roadways.” Previously, those grants went to the city of Detroit.
Recreation Dept. AFSCME Local 542 President Phyllis McMillon tells rally Sept. 22 that there are only four permanent workers on Belle Isle, who have already been re-assigned.
“The administration believes the lease will save $6 million a year, free up 36 city employees, and police who will not have to patrol the island,” said Lewis. “The plan to make Belle Isle a state park will return it to being a jewel of the city, with canoeing, horseback riding, and better upkeep. We have some of the best, highly-valued state parks in the country.”
Lewis said he was not aware of any other proposals on the table, including the 2005 Belle Isle Master Plan, which Councilwoman JoAnn Watson raised.
Brad Dick, Director Detroit General Services Department, at Council Sept. 25, 2012.
At a rally Sept. 21, AFSCME Local 542 President Phyllis McMillon said, “Bing told a lie when he said we have 36 workers here. There are only four permanent workers, the rest are seasonal from April to September. The seasonals are being laid off Sept. 23, and the four permanent workers have been re-assigned even though the lease deal is not approved.”
Dick told the Council there is no guarantee regarding how long any of those workers will be retained in other positions in the future.
Roger Penske
Pugh asked if there would be a commitment to hire Detroit residents under a state ‘lease.’ Stokes said he “could not give a guarantee on the numbers,” but said “we will work our darndest” to do so. He said he already works with “Clean Detroit,” run by Roger Penske, which coordinates with Goodwill Industries. Both groups pay sub-standard wages for work seven days a week, previously done by city employees at union wages and benefits..
SEE VIDEO BELOW
Creagh added that the plumbers and electricians unions are donating volunteer labor.
Only the Belle Isle Conservancy would partner with the state, although Jackson said they were not involved in drafting the proposed “lease.” (See sidebar with board members.)
Among other issues, the presentation revealed that the lease is likely part of a larger plan to develop prized riverfront property including Belle Isle for the benefit of the wealthy.
Stokes said the state plans to convert both east and west Detroit riverfront land and has already invested millions on the east coast of the river. Those funds have not gone to the city, however, but to the wealthy, private Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and other private entities.
According to a Sept. 2011 release from the DEGC, the remediation of the old Uniroyal site, now known as Belleview, just west of the Belle Isle bridge is currently underway, with the Riverfront Conservancy using part of the site to finish development of its Riverwalk.
“Bettis/Betters Development, LLC, holds an agreement with the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to develop it,” said the release.
Former Detroit Lions football star Jerome Bettis and Pittsburgh developer C.J. Betters are the partners. Job Site Services of Bay City, Michigan, Blaze Contracting of Detroit, E.C. Korneffel of Trenton, Stantec of Alberta, Canada, and Wade Trim of Detroit are contractors.
An earlier release said “Plans for the 44-acre site call for a mixed-use development consisting of different levels of housing and up to 1 million square feet of commercial space.”
Bettis said housing would consist of “upscale condos” along with retail developments.
(Comments and photos from public at hearing will be up shortly.)
Uniroyal site by Belle Isle Bridge undergoing clean-up in preparation for “upscale development.”
THE EMERGENCY MANAGER ACT THREATENS EVERYONE IN MICHIGAN
VIDEO ABOVE: Nick Ciaramitaro, Director of Legislation and Public Policy at Michigan AFSCME Council 25, breaks down reasons to VOTE NO on Proposal 1 (“A referendum on Public Act 4 of 2011 – The Emergency Manager Law”) and to stand up for democracy in the Michigan Statewide General Election on November 6, 2012.
This video clip was recorded on September 8, 2012 during the Twelfth (12th) Congressional District Caucus Meeting at the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) State Convention held at the Lansing Center located in Lansing, MI.
In this Aug. 4, 2009 file photo, Detroit Chief of Police Warren Evans, right, and team stop a vehicle in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
VOD Editorial: Although the VIP slate says to vote “NO” on individual Detroit proposals other than the Charter requirement issue, VOD endorses Proposal M, which would essentially de-criminalize the personal use of marijuana in Detroit on a limited basis. It would put a partial stop to the ongoing mass incarceration of Detroiters and others who are targeted by police in illegal stops and searches, many of them involving possession of marijuana. See commentary by Glenn Morgan, Jr. at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/14/native-sons-on-lockdown-a-message-to-the-black-community-in-the-d/
VOD also endorses the proposal for Wayne County Community College’s operating millage, as well as Wayne County proposals directed at limiting the powers of the Chief Executive, currently Robert Ficano. Click on Wayne-County-and-Detroit-proposals for a full listing posted by the Service Employees International Union. Unfortunately, neither the city or county clerks have posted the listing on their websites.
TV ADS NEEDED TO TELL VOTERS: NO ON PROP 1, REPEAL PA 4
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march for civil rights in Detroit, 1963. Then UAW President Walter Reuther is at left. Photo: WSU Reuther Library
VOD endorses the grass roots actions of the hard-working VIP slate, but VOD has not yet seen any television commercials at all to tell folks to vote NO on proposal 1 to eliminate Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager Act which has decimated Detroit and in particular other majority-Black cities in the state.
The daily media is campaigning vigorously to keep PA 4 and has published questionable polls claiming that the VOTE NO ON 1 vote is diminishing.
The major unions appear to be focusing on Proposal 2, the Collective Bargaining Amendment, which VOD supports. However, despite what officials like Bob King, President of the UAW International, have allegedly said, Proposal 2 will NOT take care of issues regarding voting rights.
UAW President Walter Reuther embraces Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the podium before Dr. King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech to the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington.
It is a betrayal of the UAW’s founding mission not to fund the campaign against PA 4. UAW President Walter Reuther and other union officials from the Teamsters and the rest of the AFL-CIO marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement. Dr. King was assassinated directly after marching with Memphis sanitation workers represented by AFSCME who were on strike.
Detroit’s own Viola Liuzzo, who was married to a Teamsters local official, was murdered by KKK members, with the FBI riding along, during the campaign for voter rights in the South. So was Leroy Moton, the 19-year-old Black youth riding with her. Dr. King, Reuther, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, and many other union officials attended her funeral at IHM Parish in Detroit.
Anthony and Viola Liuzzo. Anthony Liuzzo was a Teamsters business agent who supported his wife when she joined the voter rights campaign in the South, before she and Leroy Moton were murdered by the KKK in collusion with the FBI.
VOD is SHOCKED that whoever is putting money into the Prop 2 ads is not contributing some of that money to ads against Proposal 1. This is a betrayal of the 51 percent of Michigan’s African-American voters who are impacted by PA 4, and also white voters who have not yet faced the PA4 sledge hammer. Until now, the state government has focused on majority-Black cities as a way of dividing the electorate.
But if PA4 is not defeated, the state government will go on a rampage taking over other cities.
See video from Michigan Forward below and go to their website at http://michiganforward.org/ for further information on Proposal 1–VOTE NO TO REPEAL PA 4!
The mass incarceration of black men and other men-of-color in U.S.prisons warrants national and international attention as a human rights issue. A number of studies shed light of this complex and important problem.
Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow.”
The study titled The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarcerations in the Age of Colorblindness by attorney Michelle Alexander illuminates this pressing issue. She candidly states that the system of mass incarceration functions as a “well-disguised method of racialized social control” reminiscent of the old American South’s Jim Crow system.
This has certainly led to the increasing number of men-of-color, particularly black men, in U.S. prisons. It is obvious that the criminal justice system—which is ‘criminal’ itself—operates like a conveyor belt system in a factory. It criminalizes you. Then takes you through the legal process. Imprisons, rehabilitates, and then back into society you go.
Well, that’s the idea, or should I say formula.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland.
I know—I have been through it at the federal level. Let me give you the abbreviated version of my story if you (as the reader) are not familiar with it.
On February 16, 2012, I was sentenced to do ninety days in a federal facility by ring-wing, ultra-conservative U.S. 6th District Circuit Court Judge Robert H. Cleland who was appointed by President George Bush in 1990.
Next, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) notified me six weeks or so later that the Federal Correctional Institution(FCI) in Milan, Michigan forty miles south of Detroit would be the facility for my incarceration. I was to “self-surrender” at the facility onMay 15, 2012.
Milan Federal Corrections Prison, Michigan.
On May 15, 2012, I reported to the FCI-Milan. I said my goodbyes, went through the official intake formalities, and walk through the sprawling three-hundred acre facility’s gates to serve my ninety days.
I did not know what to expect before going to FCI-Milan. I am not, nor ever have been, a “career criminal” who knows the ins and outs of prison life and system.
Once inside, I immediately recognized the ethnic/ racial breakdown not long after being mainstreamed into the general inmate population, which range from 1200 to 1500 respectively (estimated). Black males made up the majority of the inmate population, followed by Hispanic males (non-black), white males, and Others (i.e. Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, etc.). FCI-Milan’s inmate demographic did not surprise me because it mirrored the plethora of studies out there about the mass incarceration of men-of-color.
The new slavery: Black men in prison.
Narcotics and white-collar crimes are the primary offenses committed by the “captives”—as I called them—at FCI-Milan. A lot of black men are serving short and long term sentences for drug convictions: 5- to-10 years on up. Clearly, a result of the quote “War on Drugs” as Alexander points out in her book.
I was a little dismayed to find out that many of them are from the City of Detroit; I found this out from “Brothers” from the city who had been at FCI-Milan for years and knew the ropes as far as who’s in for what offense.
I used the moments when Brothers from the city who asked me about my case to find out information about their experiences with the criminal justice system and how they felt about their drug conviction, or whatever the offense might be. The overwhelming consensus was that the “black man can’t get a fair shake under the whites man’s unjust legal system.” And, that “the drug laws, and laws in general, in this country are biased.” No surprise at all. Continue reading →
Chiefs Ralph Godbee, who retired Oct. 8, and Warren Evans had affairs with subordinates who oversee police misconduct
Killer cop Eugene Brown’s partner Vicki Yost was one of first DPD liaisons to DOJ for consent decree governing brutality
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick bedded USDOJ police “consent decree” monitor
At least 50 police killings from 1999-2012, most during federal oversight, also rapes, frame-ups and other brutality
By Diane Bukowski
October 10, 2012
Ralph Godbee, then Assistant Detroit Police Chief in charge, talks to the media about the police killing of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, on May 16, 2010.
DETROIT – Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced the retirement of Police Chief Ralph Godbee Oct. 8, in the midst of allegations that Godbee had an affair with a subordinate, Officer Angelica Robinson. He had promoted her to the Internal Affairs division of the Detroit Police Department, which investigates allegations of police brutality, among other matters.
Bing said he regretted Godbee’s departure after a 25-year career, the last 16 years of which he spent in high-level command positions.
Internal Affairs Officer Angelica Robinson
“I got to know Chief Godbee quite well with his tenure, and respected him as a leader, who was also well respected in the community and in the Police Department,” Bing said. “His leadership skills, his commitment to the community, superceded from my vantage point a lot of things that had been alleged in the past.”
Former Detroit police chief Warren Evans and DOJ liaison Monique Patterson.
Godbee and his predecessor Warren Evans each admitted to affairs with Detroit Police Lt. Monique Patterson prior to Bing’s appointment of Godbee. Patterson at the time was the DPD liaison to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in charge of overseeing an ongoing 11-year “consent decree” reached in 2001.
Killer cop Eugene Brown’s partner, now Inspector Vicki Yost, was one of the DPD’s first liaisons to the DOJ for the consent decree re: police brutality.
In 2000, The DPD was found to have the highest per capita rate of killings by police in the U.S, after this reporter broke the story of Officer Eugene Brown, who killed three men in separate incidents, in 1995, 1996, and 1999. From 1999 through 2012, documents show Detroit police killed at least 50 other men and even one little girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, on May 16, 2010.
Ironically, one of the DPD’s first liaisons to the Justice Department was Lt. Vicki Yost, Brown’s partner when he killed Lamar Grable, 20, on Sept. 20, 1996. Yost testified in his favor during civil lawsuit hearings, after first taking the Fifth Amendment during a previous deposition. Grable’s family later won a total of $6 million dollars as a result of the jury verdict which found Brown liable despite her testimony.
Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had affair with DOJ police consent decree monitor Sheryl Robinson Woods, for which she was fired.
Yost and Patterson’s counterpart in the DOJ, Sheryl Robinson, a contractor with Kroll International, was fired in 2009 after U.S. District Court Judge Julian Cook, who oversees the consent decree, exposed her affair with former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
At a Detroit Police Commission meeting October 4, Ron Scott, president of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Inc, who has supported Godbee, downplayed the scandal.
Ron Scott, president of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Inc., which split from the original coalition.
“If people want to be concerned about titillating and salacious things, then they should go to a peep show,” he said. “Let’s grow up, people. Let’s find out what the truth of the matter is and if there is something wrong, let’s do it. Let’s deal with it and let’s move on and move the department ahead, but if there’s nothing wrong, then let’s move on, too.”
A woman at the meeting told the Commission, “We are worried about the safety of the citizens, especially with the officer on Twitter and Facebook with the city revolver in her mouth complaining about the female drama. Is she going to be put back into the street with a city police revolver, or is she going to be put somewhere where she can get some psychiatric help and get over Chief Godbee and his female catfish drama? The leadership is too busy chasing catfish instead of the criminal, and I am here and we’re here to demand that the chief be removed.”
She referred to Lt. Robinson’s post of a video of herself threatening suicide after she discovered Godbee had gone to a national police convention with another woman. Robinson later said in a TV interview that Godbee, who is also a minister, has had numerous affairs. He is currently in divorce proceedings, but was not during the affair with Patterson.
Rodrick Carrington, Lamar Grable, and Darren Miller were killed by Officer Eugne Brown in 1995, 1996, and 1999. He has never been charged, was promoted to sergeant, and remains on the force.
Family members and victims of police brutality after a Police Commission meeting around 2002, included First three at left: Akua Tuere, Aaron Grable, Jamella Sombai, at right from center, Arnetta Grable Sr. (in blue), Cornell Squires, Arnetta Grable Jr.
Most media coverage of the “titillating and salacious things” has ignored the likely criminal dereliction of duty by all involved. Whether the victims of police killings and brutality and their families over the last dozen years are ready to “move on” as Scott recommended is questionable. Not one Detroit police officer has been charged with murder during that time, although several have been charged and acquitted in non-fatal shootings.
Detroit protest against police brutality includes Tashi Kiya (r).
Dennis Crawford was shot to death by Detroit police officers Barron Townsend and Laron York in 2004. Townsend, with officer Steven Kopp, went on to kill Tommie Staples, Jr. the father of five, in 2007. Both killings were reported by the Voice of Detroit. The officers have never been charged.
“For the record, I thank you for reminding others of these senseless crimes at the hands of our very own police force, ‘Detroit’s Finest,’ the mother of Crawford’s son commented on VOD. “ Dennis was shot 15 times; not 4 and he had no weapon at all. My son, who is now 20, has continued to suffer from the loss of his father through adulthood. As a mother, it’s very hard to keep my son from becoming a product of his environment. I fear that the judicial system does not analyze or own up to its contributions to the behavior patterns and emotional guilt of children who have lost parents (or loved ones) at the hands of those who have taken an oath to serve and protect.
Detroit cop Barron Townsend and his partners killed both Dennis Crawford and (shown in this photo second from left) Tommie Staples, Jr.
“Dennis was a good person and did not deserve to die that way. Those officers never considered that he was a father, a son, an uncle, or a loved one. I know for a fact that Officer Townsend is still patrolling the streets; he ticketed my son for being out past curfew. That evening [my son] came home with a startled look on his face, like he had seen the devil himself. Out of curiosity, I checked the name on the ticket, surely it was him. Now as a mother, of a son, who lost his father to this man, how would that make you feel? It’s justUS and justice has not been served.”
Former Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings
Godbee’s bland, pleasant face and manner have belied his top roles in the Department during two decades of rampant killings, rapes, brutality and frame-ups. The police chiefs under whom he served included Benny Napoleon, Jerry Oliver, Ella Bully-Cummings, and Warren Evans, all of whom claimed “respect in the community” as Bing commented regarding Godbee.
Godbee was in charge of former Mayor Dennis Archer’s Executive Protection Unit from 1995-1999, years during which Detroit ranked as the police killing capital of the country.
Three-time killer cop Eugene Brown grins after his promotion to sergeant. His fellow officers cheered despite knowing of his murderous history.
Three-time killer cop Eugene Brown served on that unit. An internal police review of his killings of Rodrick Carrington, Lamar Grable, and Darren Miller recommended that he face criminal charges. Former interim police chief Benny Napoleon ditched the report until the Michigan Supreme Court ordered its partial exposure. Brown has not been charged to date, but was promoted to sergeant.
Godbee was head of the DPD recruiting unit from 1999 to 2002, during which he said 3o percent of the officers on the force at the time were hired. According to a DPD bio, he was appointed Commander of the Ninth Precinct in 2002 and afterwards became Commanding Officer of the Risk and Policy Management Division of the Detroit Police Department. He became Commander of the Eastern Operations Unit in March, 2005 and was appointed assistant chief in 2007.
Detroit cop Joseph Weekley (l) who killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones (r) as depicted in drawing below, on May 16, 2010.
Godbee is perhaps best-known world-wide as the face of the DPD after Detroit Officer Joseph Weekley and a military-style “Special Response Team” raided the home of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in May, 2010 and shot her to death in front of her grandmother, father, aunt, and little brothers and cousins, for the benefit of the cameras of A&E’s “First 48.”
Godbee was acting police chief at the time because Evans was out of the country. The little girl’s family asked police officials at least to come to their home to issue an apology, but neither Godbee nor Evans ever did so. Weekley was charged only with involuntary manslaughter and has been out on personal bond ever since the child’s death, while the court system postpones his trial until her father and uncle are tried in the killing police said led to the raid.
Police officer Brian Huff.
Also during Godbee’s tenure as assistant chief, Detroit police officer Brian Huff was shot to death in April, 2010 inside what then Police Commission Chair Mohamed Okdie said was commonly known to be a drug house operated by the police. A young man, Jason Gibson, was charged and convicted despite the incredible fact that when he allegedly exited the house, facing dozens of white cops who were shooting at him, he sustained only a wound to the buttocks.
Some of the other killings and police misconduct which have taken place during Godbee’s tenure in the top ranks of the department, since 2001:
Jan. 1, 2001: 30-year-old Jerome Knox was shot to death, with one hollow-point bullet in the back, by Third Precinct Officer Arthur Leavell, as he ran from an illegal search of his friend’s van. Knox’s mother won a $2 million court settlement.
Former Detroit Police Chief Benny Napoleon cleared three-time killer cop Eugene Brown. In 1995, Napoleon led a SWAT-team raid on the apartment of a 48-year-old Black woman, Jimmi Ruth Ratliff, who died in a hail of bullets as she prayed from her Bible.
2001: Police Chief Benny Napoleon cleared three-time killer cop Eugene Brown. An internal police document recommending that Brown be charged was later exposed. The family of Lamar Grable won $6 million after a jury verdict, and the family of Darren Miller won $3.5 million in a settlement.
2001: Casino patron Willie Hamilton brutally beaten by Officer Thomas Donahoe, who had been sued five times previously for brutality. Although the beating was caught on tape, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Amy Hathaway dismissed charges against Donahoe.
2001: Officer David Krupinski acquitted in the shooting death of Errol Shaw, Sr., in Aug. 2000. Shaw was deaf and could not hear his orders to drop a rake he was carrying in his own back yard. Members of the prosecutor’s office went to parties to support Krupinski. The prosecutor was Mike Cox, who later became a right-wing State Attorney General.
Mike Cox prosecuted cop David Krupinski, who killed Errol Shaw, a deaf man with a rake, in 2000. Cox’s subordinates attended fundraisers for Krupinski. Cox later became a right-wing, pro-choice, anti-affirmative action state attorney general.
Oct. 1, 2001: Jerome Boyce shot twice in the back to death, by Sgt. Kevin Kemp, a 25-year veteran, outside a west-side bar.
Both had been inside the bar drinking. ensued. Boyce’s weapon was never found. Witnesses said Boyce was running from Kemp when he was shot. Atty. Geoffrey Fieger later won a $1.425 million court settlement in the case.
Oct. 2002: Eight Detroit cops indicted in theft of large quantities of cocaine from the evidence room. They later got off, with only one civilian employee convicted.
Nov. 14, 20o2:Victor Gonzalez severely beaten in the head by Officer Robert Feld, who had been sued at least five times in previous brutality cases, including the beating of Cornell Squires in 1998. Squires’ father sustained a fatal heart attack trying to stop the beating. Squires’s son was later framed up by a friend of Feld’s, William Melendez, for alleged carjacking.
June, 2003: City of Detroit agrees to two federal consent agreementsunder which the U.S. Dept. of Justice was to monitor police patterns and practices of brutality, including police shootings of civilians, conditions at police lockups and allegations that officers illegally conducted dragnets, arresting witnesses and others to coercetheir cooperation in homicide investigations. The consent agreement remains ongoing in 2012.
Detroit cop WIlliam Melendez, known as “Robocop,” was ringleaders of a group of cops who conducted an LA Ramparts-style reign of terror on the southwest side for years. Nine were charged by the federal government but acquitted.
February, 2004: Nine cops from the Third and Fourth Precincts, including William Melendez as ring-leader, tried by the U.S. government for numerous assaults and frame-ups of southwest side Detroiters, including the near-lynching of one man. Witnesses against the white and Hispanic officers included Black police officers. In what many called jury nullification, they were acquitted. The government dropped charges against nine other cops awaiting trial in the same case.
2004:Six killings by police, with 15 non-fatal shootings, documented by this author in The Michigan Citizen and in the federal monitor’s report.
June 25. 2004: Daron Caldwell, falsely charged with second-degree murder and other offenses related to shootings at Hart Plaza that resulted in one death. Charges were later dismissed after it was discovered that the police had fabricated evidence and reports in a “rush to judgment.”
Nationally-known Atty. Geoffrey Fieger won an undisclosed settlement in federal court against cops who killed Dennis Crawford in 2004.
Nov. 11, 2004: Dennis Crawford, killed by officers Barron Townsend and Laron York during a domestic violence call. The cops shot him 15 times during a struggle on the front porch, although he was not armed. Lawsuit by Geoffrey Fieger settled in federal court for an unknown amount in 2o06.
Jan. 2005: unarmed motorist, still unnamed, shot to death by cops as he waited with his stalled vehicle on Detroit’s east side behind an apartment complex. Witnesses in the complex said the shooting was unprovoked.
Feb. 2, 2005: Wilbert Burks, 39, killed by cops after they responded to a domestic violence call on Dolphin, near Fenkell and Lahser. “It was overkill,” a neighbor said. “They had over 28 shots and he never shot off a round.”
Footlocker store allegedly robbed by Allante Powell. Police claimed he pointed a gun at them from closet in basement where he hid, but no gunshot residue was found on his hands, and no fingerprints on a gun.
Feb. 12, 2005: Allante Lightfoote-Powell, a 16-year-old Osborn High student, killed by cops in the basement of a vacant house on Maddelein after allegedly robbing a Foot Locker store at Gratiot and 7 Mile. His friend wrote on Black Planet: “My Nigg Lante` you were tha kindess most silliest person some one cud ever know I`ve been knowin you since 5th grade seem like foreva cuz we was close like dat and now your gone but your not 4 gotten I`ll for eva miss and LOVE u and please believe I`ll take good care of Johnell and you kno Iwill cuz thatz yo boy…maybe one day I`ll be pushin his lil one in a stroller u neva kno… ”
Feb. 12, 2005: unnamed youth, 16-20, shot to death by cops after allegedly pulling a gun on McDonald’s workers, who ran out the back door. Police chased him, claimed he shot one of them, then killed him, allegedly in a shoot-out in the driveway of a home in well-to-do Rosedale Park occupied by young children.
Occupy demonstrator.
Feb. 2005: Two men wounded by police in other alleged shootouts.
July 3, 2005:Anthony Scott, 25, shot to death in his car by police at a gas station, who claimed he had a knife. Others in the car denied he reached for it.His widow, Bobbi Jo Wethington, said during a press conference held by then State Rep. Hansen Clarke, “The police are about killing you.”
State Trooper Jay Morningstar celebrates acquittal with his family.
April 14, 2005: Eric Williams, a homeless man who had lived for a long time ont the streets in Detroit’s Greektown district, was shot to death by State Trooper Jay Morningstar. Detroit police who were standing by did not stop the shooting although they admitted they knew Williams was not a threat. Morningstar was later acquitted.
Aug. 7, 2005: James A. Stone, known as Poppa Stone, died in custody at the Second Precinct on Grand River after pleading to go to the hospital for several days. His grandson Darius Stone, who was also jailed there, became sick with asthma after screaming for help for his grandfather. Neither man ever got to a hospital.
Note: Ironically, Bing and Godbee re-opened the Second Precinct station in July, 2012, with both celebrated as heroes of the community in video below.
Feb. 1, 2006: Rosetta C. Williams, killed by Kevin Lorenzo Collinsat church. after police failed to arrest Collins earlier for assaults on Williams’ daughter.
Alleged rapist cops Michael Parrish and Michael Osman at civil trial of one of their victims.
Jan. 2006 through June 2006 (at least) – Detroit cops Michael Parish and Michael Osman rape dozens of Black men on Detroit’s southwest side, by conducting illegal anal cavity searches for drugs on the public streets. At least four judges dropped trumped-up charges against the victims, including Byron Ogletree, who faced 38 years in prison and testified at City Council. Neither cop was charged; Osman was promoted to sergeant.
OCT. 3, 2006:Inspection by federal monitor’s office shows that only 15 percent of Detroit police car videotapes are functional.
Brandon Martell Moore’s family and friends after his funeral.
Nov. 26, 2006:Brandon Martell Moore, 16, unarmed, shot in the back to death by off duty police officer Eugene Williams, moonlighting as security at an east-side store. Williams killed two other men off-duty during his tenure with DPD, slammed a 16-year-old student into a wall at Osborn High, and wounded his police officer wife in a domestic dispute.
Nov. 26, 2006: An unidentified young manshot to death in a hail of gunfire by police who chased him after he allegedly tried to rob a Family Dollar store.
Artrell Dickerson, 18 when he was killed by Officer Kata-Ante Taylor.
Feb. 12, 2007: Artrell Dickerson, 18, shot in the back and killed by officer Kata-Ante Taylor as the teen, already wounded, lay on the ground next to Cantrell Funeral Home a friend’s funeral. Eyewitnesses said Taylor “stood over him and executed him. There was no gun nowhere near him.”
May 1, 2007: Detroit and Detroit Public Schools police attack a demonstration against school closings, held by students as young as fourth-graders. The students and two teachers were pepper-sprayed, beaten, dragged by their hair across the street, and falsely charged.
Young students after tear gas assault by Detroit and schools cops during protest against school closings at Northern High School May 1, 2007.
Jevon Royall
July 7, 2007: Father Jevon Royall, 30, unarmed, shot to death outside his home in front of his family by police officers Edward Brannick and Michael McGinnis at the site of Detroit’s 1967 rebellion, 40 years later.
Sept. 2007:Davontae Sanford, 14 and developmentally disabled, charged in the deaths of four people in a drug house. Hit man Vincent Smothers confessed to killing the four, and said Sanford was not involved. Sanford is still in prison.
Taminko Sanford pleads for the release of her son Davontae, falsely charged by Detroit police at the age of 14 for a drug house killing another man confessed to.
June 2, 2008: Tommie Staples, Jr., shot to death by Detroit police officers Barron Townsend and Steven Kopp after they chased him into an alley because of his role in monitoring police stops of neighborhood youths. His family later won a court settlement of $2.5 million. (See photo at beginning of story.)
July 1, 2008: SHELTON BELL, JR., 16, shot to death by off duty cop when he ran after demanding keys to car, when cop pulled his gun. Bell, Jr. was shot ten times, five in the chest, three in the back, once in the head behind his right ear, and once in his left arm. None of the shots were at close range.
July 2, 2008: Elizabeth Sanders and her boyfried Jude Beckowitz falsely charged by police for killing her six-month-old fetus. Medical records showed Sanders had in fact miscarried a short period into her pregnancy, in a hospital.
July 14, 2008: Police killed an unidentified man they claim emerged from a house on the west side, pointing a gun.
July 18, 2008: 35-year-old Robert Hill, shot to death after police rammed the bicycle he took to his niece’s home to defend her from domestic violence. The officers claimed that Hill pulled a gun, and pointed it at them.
James Willingham and Jeffrey Frazier
Nov. 4, 2008: Detroit police never investigated the deaths of Detroiters James Willingham and Jeffrey Frazier, after a high-speed state trooper chase down E. Davison near Ryan, with no police car lights or siren. Willingham lost control of his motorcycle trying to avoid Frazier, who stepped into the street unaware.
Aug. 13, 2009: Detroit police chase ends in explosion, fire, death of woman motorist. (Video below.)
Imam Luqman Abdullah
Oct. 28, 2009: Imam Luqman Abdullah, leader of a mosque in Detroit’s poor Black community, shot 21 times to death in a raid coordinated by a joint task force of feds, Detroit and Dearborn cops. Detroit cops themselves raided the home that served as his mosque. No charges have ever been brought in his death.
May 16, 2010: Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, shot to death by Detroit cop Joseph Weekley Jr. during a raid being filmed for the First 48. Cop Kata-Ante Taylor, killer of Artrell Dickerson in 2007, ran her body out of the house before her family could see or hold her as she died.
May 21, 2010: Damion Gayles, 20, shot in the throat by state troopers blocks from Aiyana’s home, causing a momentary uprising in the neighborhood. Witnesses said he did not point a gun at cops after a 40-minute chase through the community. Again, Detroit police did not investigate this shooting or refer it to the Wayne County Prosecutor. (Photo below right.)
Damion Gayles, shot in throat by state troopers shortly after Detroit police killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
June 17, 2010: Lyvonne Cargill, mother of Je’rean Blake, allegedly killed by Chauncey Owens, and her family brutalized by white police while cleaning up after a memorial birthday party for Je’Rean. Police shot at one man.
July 4, 2010: DeMarlo Hobbs, 31, shot to death while riding a bicycle when stopped by police; they claimed he had fired at a house the day before.
July, 2010:Unidentified man, a robbery suspect, shot to death on east side. Officers claimed he had a gun.
Sept. 2010: (Video below)Unindentified man shot and killed by Detroit police during manhunt for shooters of two Mumford High School students. Police claimed he had a gun and pointed it at them, but said they were not sure if he was involved in the Mumford shootings.
Sept. 17, 2010: Police kill 22-year-old-man, an alleged carjacking suspect, at Seven Mile and Burt. (Video below.)
Maryanne Godboldo speaking at rally July 7, 2011.
March 24, 2011: Maryanne Godboldo and her 13-year-old daughter Ariana are held captive in their home by a police team using helicopters, tanks and assault weapons for 12 hours after police tried to remove Ariana based on what was later found to be an illegal court document. After Maryanne surrendered, police kidnapped Ariana and took her to the Hawthorn Psychiatric Facility, where she faced constant abuse. Godboldo was charged with major felony counts for resisting the officers. Two judges later acquitted her of all charges, but Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is pursuing the criminal case against Godboldo in the appeals court.
84-year-old Charles Griggs’ home on Adeline, where police shot him when he went to the front door on March 24, 2011.
March 24, 2011: Police shot 84-year-old Charles Griggs at his front door in the 1000 block of Adeline. They claimed he pulled a gun while they were executing a search warrant for his grandson, who did not live there. Griggs was struck in the arm and leg, with one bullet traveling perilously close to his spine. The police were in plainclothes. Grigg’s attorney Otis Culpepper denied he had a gun. “He was watching television, he heard loud knocking at his door, and then he walked to the door to see who was breaking into his house and he was shot,” Culpepper said.
August, 2011:Robert Coffee, 16, shot to death by retired cop after he allegedly robbed a McDonald’s. Fleeing the scene, Coffee was shot 8 times. A gunshot wound to the back, which penetrated his lungs and heart, was likely the fatal shot. Photo of McDonald’s afterwards shows front windows and door boarded up from cop’s gunshots.
Ian May, 18.
March 23, 2012: Ian May, 18, shot to death, in the back of the head, by retired cop Lamar Nowell, acting as security for the Dollar General in the E. Lafayette shopping plaza, as he fled the scene of an “inside job” robbery for which employees of the store were arrested. Nowell had a previous record of brutality while he was on the force.
June 15, 2012: Police in riot gear raid home of Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ grandmother Mertilla Jones, hitting her and her 14-year-old grandson and calling them racist and sexist names.
Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and other grandbabies after recent police raid on her home.
Video below from YouTube shows astonishing display of police force after a traffic stop of a man with an older woman who appears to be his mother. Videotaker notes police never found drugs or guns in his car, but it is shown being towed anyway. Such stops have been common across the city.
BAMN rally on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol against Proposal 2, which banned affirmative action in Michigan institutions in 2006. It was later overturned by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a major victory, but Michigan Atty. General Bill Schuette appealed for an “en banc” hearing of the whole court, which is also taking place today, Oct. 10, 2012.
Michigan Affirmative Action Activists Rally to Support BOTH Affirmative Action and 10% Plan in University of Texas Admissions
Press Conference
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Noon (or whenever oral arguments end)
At Steps of U.S Supreme Court
For more Information, contact Kate Stenvig at 313-575-9329 or Donna Stern at 313-468-3398
A contingent from the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) will be attending oral arguments in Fisher v. Texasand then holding a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after the court session.
March to support affirmative action in Washington, D.C. 2003
Members of the contingent include UM Alumni who organized the student intervention into Grutter v. Bollinger and the 2003 50,000-strong March on Washington in defense of affirmative action, plaintiffs in BAMN’s pending challenge to Prop 2, the 2006 state ban on affirmative action in Michigan, as well as minority students who are currently having to contend with diminished educational opportunity under the Prop 2 ban.
“BAMN supports both aspects of the Univ. of Texas current admission policy. The Ten Percent Plan, which makes up 75% of the UT student body, is by far the most democratic, equal, fair and transparent admissions system of any elite university in the country. The traditional “holistic” plan which now comprises 25% of UT admissions, enables out-of-state, non-athlete, underrepresented minority students access to the University, as long as race-conscious affirmative action policies are in place to counter-balance the factors which capture racial and class inequities in educational opportunities. These factors, most importantly heavy reliance on standardized test scores, always give applicants who attend privileged majority-white high schools a huge unearned advantage in a competitive admissions system,” said Kate Stenvig, BAMN College Organizer.
In this Feb. 13, 2012, file photo, demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after a panel heard oral arguments in San Francisco in a lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposition 209, which barred racial, ethnic or gender preferences in public education, employment and contracting. As the Supreme Court revisits the use of race in college admissions in October 2012, critics of affirmative action are hopeful the justices are poised to roll back the practice. A new report out Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 offers a big reason for their optimism: evidence the nine states where leading public universities don’t use affirmative action have succeeded in bringing diversity to their campuses through race-neutral means. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
Large numbers of gifted and hard-working students from not only poor and Latina/o, black, Native American and immigrant communities, but also from poor white communities, who never even would have applied, let alone gained admission to UT Austin under a conventional admissions system, even one with affirmative action, have been able to utilize the educational opportunities UT Austin provides, to develop themselves, to let their talents shine and to uplift the dignity and pride of their embattled and struggling communities.
“Ending the affirmative action component in the context of the UT Austin admissions system would reserve twenty-five percent of UT Austin seats for students who come from privileged majority-white schools. Utilizing factors such as standardized test scores, alumni preference, access to advanced placement courses, high school rank and extra-curricular activities would give a huge unearned advantage to wealthy white students and those from privileged schools. In this context the affirmative action plan challenged by the petitioner is the only measure barring this special admissions track from becoming a blatant white-privilege track for those wealthy, white Texas and out-of-state students who expressly do not qualify under UT Austin’s predominant Ten Percent admissions track,” said Donna Stern, BAMN National Coordinator.
“We promise you this, if this court rules against affirmative action, BAMN will immediately file suit against the use of any “traditional” admissions system, because it will be nothing but a special admissions track for privileged white and, to some extent, Asian students,” said Shanta Driver, BAMN attorney and Chairperson.
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) www.bamn.com, 855-ASK-BAMN , P.O. Box 24834, Detroit, MI 48224, admin@bamn.com
Stanley “Tookie” Williams, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, executed December 13, 2005.
Word has just reached us that Steve Champion, a prisoner on San Quentin’s death row well known as an inspirational advocate for justice and as one of the trio with Stanley Tookie Williams and Anthony Ross, began a hunger strike last Thursday, Oct. 4.
His demands – still unmet – are listed in “The struggle never stops,” published in the July San Francisco Bay View newspaper and reprinted below. He asks that all who believe in justice call and write the warden and Corrections Department (CDCR) spokespersons to say:
“We are aware of Steve Champion’s hunger strike and concerned for his health. We look to you to respond to him promptly, constructively and appropriately.”
“Steve Champion, death row prisoner and author of ‘Dead to Deliverance, A Death Row Memoir,’ has been held in administrative segregation, without phone and other privileges, since just prior to the execution of his friend Stanley Tookie Williams in December 2005,” writes Steve’s friend, Professor Tom Kerr of Ithaca College, in an afterword to Steve’s essay, “Gang validation: The new inquisition,” published Feb. 18, 2011.
It was Professor Kerr who learned and confirmed today that Steve started a hunger strike Oct. 4. Letters from both Steve and his comrade Anthony Ross are reportedly on their way, their delivery perhaps held up by San Quentin authorities. But we cannot wait to save Steve’s life.
Like Tookie, Steve is a brilliant writer and leader widely admired and loved on both sides of the prison walls. Professor Kerr adds in his afterword:
“Steve Champion, in his death row memoir, describes his early life in Los Angeles and the allure for him of the Crips street gang, his incarceration and experience in the U.S. prison system, his life on death row, and his growth and struggle as a human being. He also offers a critical analysis of the prison system, especially capital punishment, and describes how through sustained collaboration with Stanley Tookie Williams and Anthony Ross, he evolved on death row from a high school dropout into an accomplished writer and student of the humanities.”
Jabari Shaw, former prisoner and current activist with All of Us or None, heralds George Jackson at the rousing Occupy San Quentin rally Feb. 20, 2012, just outside San Quentin’s main gate Photo Wanda Sabir
A lot of history is evoked by Steve’s hunger strike. San Quentin’s infamous Adjustment Center is where “Soledad Brother” George Jackson was housed when he was assassinated Aug. 21, 1971, the day commemorated every year in Black August. In turn, George Jackson, probably the most famous and influential U.S. prisoner of all time, was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s excuse for executing Stanley Tookie Williams.
The governor wrote in denying clemency to Tookie, triggering his execution hours later, on Dec. 13, 2005: “The dedication of Williams’ book ‘Life in Prison’ casts significant doubt on his personal redemption … (T)he inclusion of George Jackson on the list [of Black heroes in the book’s dedication] defies reason and is a significant indicator that Williams is not reformed and that he still sees violence and lawlessness as a legitimate means to address societal problems.”
Steve Champion’s “Gang validation: The new inquisition” begins by reporting a cell search and the confiscation of his legal materials and other writings “for possible gang validation. The reason for the action, I was told, was my possession of a Kiswahili dictionary and the book ‘Soledad Brother’ by George Jackson” – this after 28 years on San Quentin’s death row, with that book in his cell for most of those years.
George Jackson, field marshal of the Black Panther Party, assassinated by San Quentin prison guards Aug. 21, 1971.
Recalling the rebellion of Aug. 21, 1971, and fearing a repeat in response to Tookie’s execution 34 years later, San Quentin authorities confined Tookie’s closest friends, Steve Champion and Anthony Ross, to the Adjustment Center, an extremely restrictive form of solitary confinement much like the infamous Pelican Bay SHU. Thus, now that solitary confinement is recognized worldwide as torture, the particularly intense torture endured by Steve Champion is purely retaliatory. Steve is being tortured for his friendship with Tookie and Anthony and their admiration of George Jackson.
Steve writes in “Gang validation: The new inquisition”: “Prison administrators know that if even one prisoner shuns George Jackson’s books or other leftist material because he thinks he might be labeled a gang member and placed in the SHU, then the strategy of suppression is effective. …
“[Even] ‘apolitical’ prisoners will recognize on a general level that their own existential condition can be compared to George Jackson’s. It is this identification with George Jackson that makes him symbolically powerful and very much alive. And for this, he must be vilified and punished, over and over again – suppressed and chased away from anyone who dares consume his words.”
The Attica rebellion in upstate New York Sept. 9-13, 1971, saw thousands of prisoners take over the prison, protesting intolerable conditions and infuriated by the assassination of George Jackson at San Quentin on Aug. 21, 1971. The secret of their unprecedented strength was their multi-racial solidarity. Here, Black and white prisoners sit on a wall during a meeting called by the organizers.
In the same essay, Steve also addresses what is likely to become – only three days from now – the number one prison story across the U.S.: the “end of hostilities” between prisoners in California declared by the leaders of last year’s hunger strike housed in the Pelican Bay SHU. That declaration is contained in “California prisoners make historic call for peace between racial groups in California prisons and jails,” published in the October Bay View.
Steve writes: “What also facilitates the suppression of political consciousness is the unending cycle of ethnic and sectarian violence that permeates the U.S. prison system. Violence is micromanaged to perpetuate racial hatred and division among prison groups.
“And let me be honest: Prisoners make it easy for prison administrators to accomplish this when they fail to redress the stark contradictions between their intransigent conflicts against each other and the repressive and often brutal treatment meted out to them by the prison regime.”
San Quentin warden Kevin Chappell.
Solidarity among prisoners and between prisoners and all who believe in justice is the way to stop the madness of mass incarceration. Steve Champion’s hunger strike is a prime opportunity for showing prison administrators a better way.
The Bay View urges readers to flood San Quentin and CDCR with messages similar to the letter sent today by Professor Tom Kerr to San Quentin Warden Kevin Chappell with a link to Steve’s list of demands:
“Dear Warden Chappell,
“As Steve Champion’s friend and editor, I am writing to comment on the hunger strike that I understand he began on Oct. 4. Steve’s CDCR number is C-58001.
“Judging by his writing, by my nearly nine years of correspondence with him as his editor and friend, and by my several personal visits, Steve has, in 30 years on death row, become a remarkable person.
San Quentin death chamber.
“I know that he would only resort to an action as dire as a hunger strike if he felt it were the last resort to get legitimate, if negotiable, grievances addressed. I know that he has long endeavored to work within the system, even when he has been critical of it.
“I hope you will view his hunger strike as an opportunity to reconsider or revisit the prison’s position on some of the issues he describes in his 602 petition and listed in his article in the San Francisco Bay View this past July: http://sfbayview.com/2012/the-struggle-never-stops/.
“I hope you will also ensure that Steve is treated respectfully and appropriately, as he protests against policies and procedures that he strongly believes to be excessively degrading and punitive, even in the extreme situation of death row. I trust that you will both respect the convictions and integrity driving his protest and work quickly toward a constructive solution.
“Thank you for considering my thoughts.
“Sincerely,
“Tom Kerr, PhD, Ithaca College”
Your message may also be as simple as the one noted above: “We are aware of Steve Champion’s hunger strike and concerned for his health. We look to you to respond to him promptly, constructively and appropriately.”
Video below: Johnny Cash’s 1969 performance at San Quentin. Other videos showed he played to a segregated audience then, composed solely of white prisoners, although the majority are Black and Latin. But his message resonates still, as prisoners of all races have issued a historic call for unity.
For ease of reference, here are Steve Champion’s demands:Continue reading →
Several hundred supporters of strikers at a giant Walmart warehouse near Chicago converged on the tiny town of Elwood, IL, on Monday, effectively shutting down this key hub of the big retailer’s distribution center for most of the day.
“Today’s CPH—zero,” cheered warehouse worker Phil Bailey, using the managers’ abbreviation of “cartons per hour,” the dreaded standard for the seemingly always more intensified pace of work in the warehouse. Warehouse Workers For Justice (WWFJ), an organization launched and supported by the United Electrical Workers (UE) to raise standards for the industry, reported that managers had sent the day’s workforce home early.
Union and community organization members, clergy, Walmart retail workers, and civic leaders rallied in a nearby parking lot and marched around the two big buildings, before 17 leaders from the supportive constituencies sat down in the late afternoon across Centerpoint Drive, outside the main gate.
Members of Chicago’s southwest suburbs’ ‘mobile force team’ arrested peaceful protesters outside a Walmart warehouse yesterday. (Courtesy of Pat Barcas)
A couple dozen police officers, clad in heavy black helmets and riot gear, and backed by military-style vehicles, assembled on Walmart’s property. Their equipment—which seemed like overkill for a protest negotiated in advance—had all been purchased with money from the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, specifically for this “mobile force team” jointly operated by a consortium of local police forces, according to Elwood police Chief Fred W. Hayes.
The riot police marched trough the main gate of the warehouse, then handcuffed and arrested the non-violent sit-down protestors on minor traffic obstruction charges, as both they and other demonstrators sang, “We shall not be moved.”
On September 15 a small group of workers walked out of the non-union facility after management fired—then later changed tactics and “suspended”—some key leaders, including Bailey. He is one of four named plaintiffs in a class action suit that lawyers working with WWFJ filed two days earlier. Workers charged their immediate employer, Roadlink Workforce Solutions, with committing wide-ranging wage theft and related violations of state and federal employment law.
Workers during California warehouse strike (link to story below).
Although Walmart owns the warehouse, it contracts with Schneider Logistics to manage operations, including the further subcontracting of actually providing workers to temporary employment firms like Roadlink, which employs about 125 people at Elwood.
In a situation made more chaotic by management’s actions, more workers were fired or suspended on September 15 when they tried to present a petition about their grievances to management. About 30 Roadlink workers initially, now up to 38, said they were striking over unfair labor practices—management penalties for engaging in legally protected collective action—as well as the issues in the lawsuit and petition.
This may be the first warehouse strike in the huge warehousing operations that have grown rapidly over the past three decades in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, which according to World Business Chicago is the world’s third-largest intermodal transportation hub. Continue reading →
