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

Family enjoys cook-out on west end of island with skyline as backdrop.

VOD editor and life-long Detroiter Diane Bukowski has bicycled around Belle Isle, near where she lives, for the last 32 years. On July 28, 2012, a beautiful Saturday, she took her camera along. While the daily media has shown photos of white folks on the beach and a pictorial history of the island beginning in 1901, her bike tour was a reality check.

SAVE BELLE ISLE!  IT BELONGS TO US!

Wally Safford, a Central High School alumni, at New Missionary Baptist Church picnic, seen in background, on southwest end of island.

Friends enjoy a quiet talk on the river with Windsor in the background.

Couple who were bicycling around the island take a break in the shade.

Doing the hustle at SEIU picnic and health fair near the Belle Isle Carillon.

Kids really enjoyed the dance at SEIU picnic.

Friends and family attending Smith family picnic on east end of Belle Isle.

Family picnic along cut-away to south end of island, near inland pond.

City of Detroit Public Lighting Department workers take care of streetlight. Their jobs, as well as those of hundreds of others, mostly Detroiters, are endangered by any state take-over of the island. A regional lighting authority bill in the state legislature would get rid of PLD period.

AFSCME Local 457 President Laurie Walker and class action plaintiff against consent agreement Yolanda King at AFSCME Council 25 picnic. Local 457 represents workers at the Detroit Health Department, which along with two other federally-funded departments, Human Services and Workforce Development, are being dismantled and privatized for non-financial reasons.

Kids enjoy the swings at AFSCME picnic.

AFSCME DJ tent at picnic.

AFSCME family members say NO to EM! Public Act 4, the “emergency manager act,” jeopardizes the assets, services, voting rights, and jobs of city residents around Michigan. So far, over half the state’s African-American population is under its pall.

Couple and baby view deer in pen at “Nature Zoo.” Deer lived free on Belle Isle for centuries, an attraction for families who came with their kids to feed them in the winter. Those deer were killed, allegedly due to disease, and replaced with these (ironically white) deer by Zoo Director Ron Kagan after the Detroit Zoo system was privatized.

Detroit Yacht Club on west side of island, for members and guests only. This club for the well-to-do pays only $1 A YEAR as rent to the City of Detroit. Another source of revenue: charge market-rate rent to the DYC.

Family picnics on the beach in between swims with gorgeous view of downtown Detroit skyline.

Family and friends picnic in front of former Belle Isle Zoo, closed by Kagan in order to direct funds predominantly to the Zoo in Royal Oak.

Blesset, Shaffer and Gussie family re-union at one of island’s largest shelters on west end of island near the beach.

Picnic under the willow trees with view of downtown Detroit.

Coming back, Bukowski took this photo of the section of the Riverwalk near the bridge. The Riverwalk is owned by the private Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, whose board members are primarily corporate executives.

An AP article published July 24 said:

“Efforts to complete a recreational development project along Detroit’s east riverfront are getting a $44 million boost from the federal government and the state, officials announced Monday.

The Detroit RiverFront Conservancy said new partnerships and a series of construction projects will wrap up work in the area. They include the redevelopment of Mount Elliott Park, improvements at Gabriel Richard Park and expanding the reach of the Detroit RiverWalk.

The project is getting $29 million in federal highway money and a $15 million investment by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, officials said. It includes work at a site once home to a Uniroyal tire factory.”

But under Ric-tator Snyder’s administration, the state will not fund improvements on Belle Isle itself unless it takes over with a 99-year-lease.  The state already owns the Milliken riverfront park just east of the RenCen.

Part of a large crowd who rallied at the gates of the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Detroit July 24 to demand Detroit control of DWSD, a good contract for workers.

Over 150 pack protest at WWTP in support of city-wide strike, Detroit control of DWSD

By Diane Bukowski 

July 27, 2012 

DETROIT – City of Detroit water department workers mobilizing for a city-wide strike turned out an impressive show of support July 24. A diverse march and rally of over 150 people packed the entrance to the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) on W. Jefferson. It drew media attention and brought hope to many city residents looking for new leadership.

“If we shut this place down, we will settle a contract in one week,” AFSCME Local 207 President John Riehl told the protesters. He and others said that administration of President Barack Obama cannot afford a massive strike in Detroit as November elections approach.

Raymond Love tells workers to “stand up and fight!”

“We have to stand up and fight,” Raymond Love, a water department worker for 10 years, said. “The Detroit water department belongs to the citizens of Detroit, not to Snyder and Bing.” He referred to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

“We are representing the whole city, whose people are dying to support someone who is fighting, not just talking about fighting.” Local 207 Secretary-Treasurer Mike Mulholland said.

Under terms of orders issued by U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is negotiating with its workers separately from other city workers, who face imposed terms under a Public Act 4 consent agreement.

Sue McCormick addresses meeting during previous tenure as Ann Arbor public services administrator. Photo: AA.com

On July 17, DWSD management, led by newly-appointed Director Sue F. McCormick,  presented demands similar to those included in the unilateral “City Employment Terms” document being imposed by state officials, the Financial Advisory Board, and the Bing administration.

They include withdrawal of the Local’s ongoing legal challenge to Cox’s order,  inclusion of water department workers in the consent agreement,  which bars collective bargaining, a 10 percent wage cut, 12 month probationary periods for new hires and newly promoted workers, attacks on pension and seniority rights, and other anti-union measures.

Speakers at the rally said they are fighting not only for a good contract, but to win back Detroiters’ control and ownership of DWSD, axed last year by U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox. Former U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Cox, who is a right-wing Federalist Society member, to the bench.

AFSCME Local 207 Vice-President Lakita Thomas represents over 1200 DWSD workers.

Lakita Thomas, Local 207 Vice-President, told VOD, “They want the water department, and they are trying to design it to fail, make it look as dirty and rotten as possible so they can easily take it over. But we are going to fight, and we’re fighting to win. We are trying to protest everywhere.”

DWSD has been decimated by massive private contracting, hundreds of lay-offs, and the departure of experienced staff due to draconian pension proposals. It is also under attack by Wall Street, whose rating agencies have several times downgraded its previously sterling bond ratings in order to have lenders profit from higher interest rates.

“We just came from occupying a woman’s home to stop her from being evicted, and the community-wide efforts are working, they are re-opening her case,” Shanta Driver, head of the national By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) coalition, said. “We must likewise turn the corner on our entire city’s destruction and save Detroit.”

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox, a George W. Bush appointee.

Under an initial consent agreement reached in Feb. 2011 between Bing and the leaders of surrounding counties at the direction of Judge Cox, suburban representatives led by Board of Water Commissioners (BOWD) Chair James Fausone now control BOWC votes on contracts and rates. The Detroit City Council’s right to approve contracts has been eliminated. They approve rates only for Detroit proper.

Later that year, Bing and the City Council approved the sale of the mammoth Oakland-Macomb County Interceptor, in violation of the City Charter which requires a popular vote on sale or privatization of DWSD assets. The revised City Charter has maintained that provision for DWSD and D-DOT.

On Nov. 4, 2011, Cox ruled that DWSD would no longer be subject to that Charter provision, a city ordinance limiting privatization, workers’ rights under the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, and access to state courts.

He launched an all-out attack on union rights, abolishing seniority rights in many areas, union grievance procedures, and full-time release for the Local’s three top officers.  Local 207 has over 1,200 members and is the largest AFSCME union local in the city.

His order diminished opportunities for Black-owned businesses and Detroit resident construction workers under DWSD contracting procedures, and opened the door to unbridled privatization.

Mass press conference held by DWSD unions to announce legal challenges to U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox’s takeover of the department.

Michigan AFSCME Council 25, AFSCME Local 207, the city’s Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers (SAAA), and UAW Region IA Local 2200 have appealed. AFSCME 207 accused Cox of bias and asked him to recuse himself, which he has refused to do. He also denied motions by the unions to intervene in the case, which originated in 1977 with a federal challenge claiming DWSD was in violation of the Clean Water Act.

AFSCME Local 207 appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the Court to issue a stay of Cox’s Nov. 4 order, order Cox’s removal from the case due to bias, and approve the unions’ intervention.

The Sixth Circuit Court denied the immediate motions Dec. 21, 2011, but allowed aspects of the case as a whole to proceed on appeal.

Judges on the panel were Cuban-born Danny J. Boggs, named in  1986 by{President Ronald Reagan, Ronald Lee Gilman, named by President Bill Clinton in 1997, and Richard Allen Griffin, named in 2002 by Bush, but not approved by the Senate until 2005 after partisan controversy, during which he was described as a “deeply conservative jurist.”

DWSD COO Matthew Schenk

Since then, Cox has ordered the addition of a Chief Operating Officer to DWSD administration. Matthew Schenck was plucked directly from the scandal-ridden administration of Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano to fill that post. His background is primarily in legal matters.

Earlier, the BOWC appointed Sue F. McCormick as department director. She was previously Public Services administrator in Ann Arbor, in charge of the city’s entire infrastructure including its water department. There, she established water rates that increased by seven levels according to a tenant’s usage of water, as well as privatization initiatives.

As director, she has broad powers under Cox’s order to hire, promote and fire workers, outsource services, and further remove the department from Detroit’s control.

DWSD service area

“One of the largest systems in the nation, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has a rich history in public utility service dating back to the early 1800s,” says DWSD’s website.

“DWSD provides water service to the entire city of Detroit and neighboring southeastern Michigan communities throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Genessee, Washtenaw and Monroe counties. The 1,079-square-mile water service area, which includes Detroit and 126 suburban communities, makes up approximately 40 percent of the state’s population. Wastewater service is also provided to a 946-square-mile area that encompasses Detroit and 76 neighboring communities.”

Detroiters built and paid for the system, known as the primary jewel of the city, through billions in bond issues over the years.

Local 207 is planning another rally Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center at Jefferson and Woodward in downtown Detroit. (See flier below.)

Related VOD stories: 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/16/union-challenges-cox%e2%80%99s-water-dept-takeover-order/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/14/sean-cox-right-wing-affiliations/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/10/cox-axes-detroiters-control-over-water-department/

VOD: As Local 207’s flier above says, “Bing even pissed off the cops.” This rally took place July 26, 2012 outside the Coleman A. Young Center. Inside, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Amy Hathaway had just dismissed a class action lawsuit by AFSCME leaders Rose Roots, Yolanda King, and Yvonne Ross against the consent agreement, claiming that the state did not fit the definition of “one” as in “municipalities are not allowed to contract with ONE in default.” Story on that later. Meanwhile, for background on that lawsuit click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/16/detroiters-sue-city-officials-to-void-consent-agreement-next-hearing-thurs-july-26-9am/.

Where the real crooks are.

DPD! Who Do You Call? DPD! – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod *

Press Release, July 26, 2012 By Joseph Duncan, President DPOA.

Today we stand as united members of Detroit Public Safety (Police, Fire Department, EMS etc., to tell Mayor Bing and Governor Snyder that cuts to our pay and benefits, cut to our retiree benefits, will not be tolerated. This is total disregard of our Labor Contracts.

The Terms of Employment strips workers of their basic right. These Rights have taken over 50 years of collective bargaining to achieve, and it won’t be easily taken…
Citizens of this city will not accept the substandard service that administration has forced them to endure.

No trucks, rigs, no firefighters, no EMS techs.

Closing Police and Fire Stations, reducing service, reducing man/womanpower, places their lives in overwhelming danger from crime and violence…
The citizens of Detroit have reached a boiling point and are demanding they be protected. Public safety workers have reached their breaking point and demand they are demanding they be treated fairly. We took an oath, a promise to protect the citizens of this city and place our lives on the line everyday… Mr. Mayor you have an obligation to keep your word. And, I have every intention to see that promise is kept… This fight, the struggle has just begun! – –

Pension cuts hurt families too.

A No Struggle, No Development Production!

By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of           1} From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913  eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
2} The World As I’ve Seen It! My Greatest Experience! {Photo Book}
YouTube: I have over 300 Video’s, over 94,600 hits, averaging 3,000 a month.

Detroit residents joined the protest “They say cut back, we say fight back!”

Most of the publicity went to the DPOA, but Detroit firefighters and EMS workers were out in force as well, to protest the shutdown of firehouses as the city burns, and the elimination of EMS rigs, directly causing the deaths of Detroiters. Detroit Firefighters Association officer Teresa Sanderfer is shown with DPOA President Joseph Duncan in video above.

DFFA officer Theresa Sanderfer is interviewed with DPOA President Joseph Duncan behind her.

She told VOD, “We have had to close 15 fire stations and 17 companies. There have been 164 lay-offs and 255 demotions resulting in $15,000 to $25,000 pay cuts. The fire prevention and community relations divisions have been cut.”

Duncan said the DPOA is not threatening to strike, but has filed suit in the State Court of Claims against the contract imposition. A three judge Court of Appeals panel later denied their request for relief, according to the DPOA website.

Detroit firefighters were out in force.

Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) strike vote.

By Theresa Moran

July 25, 2012

The Chicago Teachers Union won a major victory yesterday when the city halted its plans to increase teacher work hours.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago school board announced in April that they were unilaterally increasing the school day by 20 percent in the fall—without increasing teaching staff or providing proportional compensation for the additional hours.

Chicago teachers at Puerto Rican Day parade.

Chicago teachers already work an average of 58 hours a week, according to a recent report. Under Illinois labor law, the board is not required to negotiate with teachers over work hours.

Under yesterday’s interim agreement, students will be spending more time in the classroom when they start back to school next month, but teacher work hours won’t spike. Instead, the city will create 500 new positions.

The union also won recall rights for teachers who lose their jobs due to downsizing or school closures. If more than three tenured teachers displaced within the last three years apply for one of the new positions, the job must go to one of them. Currently, Chicago teachers have no recall rights.

While not as strong as recall rights enjoyed by teachers in New York and other cities, the provision is still “precedent-setting,” says CTU financial secretary Kristine Mayle. “This is the first recall of any sort that we’ve ever had. It kicks the door open to us getting real recall for our people.”

MOBILIZING GETS RESULTS

Teachers pack auditorium.

The agreement comes after months of months of member mobilization. Union members have been a regular presence at school board meetings and closure hearings. In May, a sea of 6,000 red shirts marched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange shareholders meeting to protest government handouts for the Merc while education and other public services are being compacted.

After negotiations deadlocked, the union held “practice strike authorization votes” in schools across the city. Practice made perfect: in June, an overwhelming 92 percent of the union’s membership voted to authorize a strike.

According to Mayle, yesterday’s agreement proves that people power and direct action get the goods. “It only took 10,000 people in the street, a strike authorization vote, and a fact finder to tell them that they’re crazy but, hey, whatever works!”

The longer school day has been among the most contentious issues in the heated negotiations between the union and the city. Teachers were angered not only by the imposition of more work without a raise, but by the city’s lack of a plan to fill the extra time. Teachers and parents alike questioned the value of more time in the classroom with no increase in resources or new programming.

The union has been advocating for guaranteed art, music, and physical education for all students, and calling for increased funding for school nurses and social workers.

But Chicago has been slashing resources and cutting programs across the system, especially in low-income black and Latino communities, depriving students at many schools of such basics as libraries and recess.

The 500 new hires will likely fill gaps for much-needed “enrichment” subjects like music, library science, and languages.

“We’ve been pushing for a better school day and this is our chance to get it,” said Mayle.

FULL SPEED AHEAD

Negotiations between the union and the city are far from over. The interim agreement leaves salary and healthcare costs unresolved, and doesn’t address disputes over evaluations and discipline procedures.

And while new teachers will increase the variety of classes offered, the increase amounts to only one additional teacher per school, on average. The change will do nothing to fix the problem of too-large classes.

Until those issues are resolved, says Mayle, the CTU is still “going full speed ahead” with preparations for a possible strike in September.

RELATED STORIES:

• Standing Up to Corporate School Agenda, Chicago Teachers Greenlight Strike
• Chicago Occupation Challenges Corporate School Agenda
• Saying It’s Not about the Money, Chicago Teachers Inch Closer to Strike
• Chicago Schools Showdown Galvanizes Teachers
• Occupying Parents Win an Audience, but Chicago Schools Still Privatize
• How Bogus Ratings Make Good Teachers Do Bad Things
• Billionaires and Politicians Test Chicago Teachers Union
• How’s Partnership Working for Teachers?
• Reformers in Chicago Teachers Union Grapple with Leadership Challenges
• Corporations Sell Longer Day, Chicago Teachers Aren’t Buying

Johnnie Brice, in “outraged” shirt, and other Detroit teachers rally outside Fisher Building July 19, 2012.

Leadership evidently has no concrete plan to achieve victory

By Diane Bukowski 

July 26, 2012 

DETROIT – Hundreds of Detroit teachers rallied outside Detroit’s Fisher Building July 19 to demand that Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts come to the bargaining table, long after he imposed a contract on their union. They have not taken a strike vote and their representatives said they have no plans to do so.

Children of teachers joined their parents at the rally.

“What do we want—a contract! When do we want it—NOW!” they shouted.

A week later, on July 25, some of 3,000 members attending the American Federation of Teachers national convention in downtown Detroit supported them in a similar protest. AFT President Randi Weingartern spoke with Roberts but got no guarantee from him that anything would change.

Johnnie Brice has worked for DPS for 12 years, and currently teaches at Burton International elementary school.

“I’m outraged,” she said. “We’re being treated like second-class citizens, with no respect. We are held responsible for all the ills of the system but we have no control. We took a 10 percent wage cut and don’t have enough paid prep time to prepare for our classes. We are mandated to come to work 15 minutes early without extra pay. The whole situation makes us so stressed out it is hurting our students as well.”

Detroit teachers demand respect July 19 outside Fisher Building.

She said teachers this summer are in the process of interviewing for their jobs all over again. Seniority has been thrown out of the window. The principals of each school decide whether they come back or not. Discussions were taking place all over the picket line between teachers about whether they had been called back.

Dave Hecker, president of the Michigan Amalgamated Federation of Teachers, led the protest, along with DFT President Keith Johnson and Vice-President Edna Reeves.  Officials from the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO and other unions also joined the protest.

Michigan AFT president Dave Hecker (l with bullhorn) leads chants as DFT VP Edna Reeves rallies the crowd.

“All we want is what’s good for the students and the teachers and staff,” Hecker said. “Collective bargaining with the UAW saved the auto industry. Why not come to the table? We are going to DEMAND, DEMAND AND DEMAND until he [Roberts] respects us.”

Johnson and Reeves spoke along similar lines. Johnson announced last year that Roberts informed him months before he imposed the contract that he was going to do so. Asked what he planned to do about it, Johnson said he would wait to see and take legal action if necessary.

In a side interview, VOD asked Hecker and Steve Michalakis, president of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO, why they are not taking stronger action such as pushing the entire union movement to shut down Detroit and Michigan, to fight what has become an all-out assault on union members, working and poor people across the state under Public Act 4.

They had no real answer. Two years ago, when Keith Johnson took office again, a reform movement in the DFT led by teacher Steve Conn and others claimed that Johnson stole the election,  during a raucous meeting where they had broad support from the membership. Hecker nonetheless swore Johnson in.

VOD: Read Labor Notes story above this which details the results a reform slate in the Chicago Teachers Union has been able to achieve there, in their battle against pro-charter school district president Rahm Emanuel. They have already taken a strike vote and are conducting mass campaigns in the community to stop school closures as well. What position would the DFT be in today if Johnson had not stolen the election as alleged?

DIA: THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE!

DIA MILLAGE, NO CORE SERVICE, SHOULD BE REJECTED

Gregory A. Murray

By Greg Murray 

July 19, 2012

In an era of declining municipal revenue, it would appear that George Orwell is alive and well. How else can you explain the logic of asking for more money from homeowners for the arts when budgets for core services like public safety, schools, and badly needed infrastructure repair are being cut back year after year?

The Detroit Institute of Arts is asking for a property tax increase to, well, uh, depending on the audience it is before, stop it from closing its doors. Oh, wait, it’s to raise new funding so that the DIA doesn’t have to touch its $100 Million-plus endowment surplus. No matter what the reason, this DIA millage proposal should be more like DOA (dead on arrival).

The arts community says this new money is needed because the arts play a crucial role in the marketability of a community. The DIA marketers insist that the promised free admission to the Institute is well worth a tax increase that only homeowners will have to pay.

Homeless man sleeps at base of former Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree’s statue in Grand Circus Park. The plaque on the statue calls Pingree, who served in the 1890’s, the “People’s Mayor,” who warned of “the power of the private corporations.” He was a founder of the public service sector in Detroit.

Well, the word on the street is that a picture will not respond to a home invasion call… a sculpture will not transport you to an emergency room, tea and crumpets are no substitute for feeding the hungry…no, the priority should be on people, not pictures, on services, not sculptures, on roads, not Renoirs, on schools, not elite social gatherings, or at this time, any other function which does not directly prioritize using tax revenue to stabilize neighborhoods or make communities safer and stronger.

Let the DIA marketers tell you, admission will be free at the DIA while you drive through unsafe and decaying roads to get there. Let the DIA tell you, the arts are critical to the region while you fight just to keep your child’s neighborhood school open and your children safe in that school. They will tell you admission will be free while not telling you that the tax they want from you is actually frontloading the admission price.

They will tell you, however, that the arts are essential to the economics of the region…hasn’t worked in the past and won’t in the future. Tell that to the 3,000 Detroit employees scheduled for layoff, or explain it to the Oakland and Macomb County residents who are dealing with reduced services based on deficits the likes of which have not been seen in decades. There are more important things that bring business to a region, like public safety, good schools, viable transportation systems, solid infrastructure, and diverse communities. This DIA millage brings none of that to the table.

Protesters in front of the Spirit of Detroit demand a moratorium on home foreclosures.

The promoters of this tax want you to bail them out; where is your family budget bailout? Haven’t we had enough of bailouts on the backs of hard working homeowners who can’t get banks that got bailed out to help homeowners stabilize and reduce their mortgages and by extension, help the families who taxes bailed out the banks in the first place?

What sense does it make to regionalize the revenue stream for the arts when we can’t even agree on a regionalized transportation system, nor a regionalized public safety system, a consolidated school system, or a regionalized water system? If we are looking at priorities to more efficiently utilize and leverage tax revenue, taxes for arts should be at the bottom of any sane person’s list for sure.

Taken one step further, how fair is it that people who do not own a home can dictate that you have to pay more taxes based on the fact that you do own a home? Why should people like me, who lease or rent property, determine how much a hardworking homeowner should pay in property tax that I and others will never be on the hook for? It would be different if we were talking about a flat sales tax or helping veteran or first responders, fixing streets, or helping to keep schools open and safe.

As much as I deplore Leon Drolet’s and the Michigan Taxpayer’s Association’s abject cowardice as exemplified by their running from the issue of the state and Detroit imposing through the consent agreement a new $137 million debt obligation on its residents, I have to agree with his selective outrage over the DIA’s blatantly misleading media campaign to win over votes for this ill-timed attempt to get at more taxpayer money.

This revenue stream would better spent on core services that affect the quality of life…like police and fire services, local roads, health and human services, etc., all of which are declining at alarming rates due to declining tax revenue.

After it is all said and done, your vote on art millage should boil down to this: If you want more, pay for it at the door, and if you don’t go, vote no.

Gregory A. Murray

I am an independent journalist and partisan-free observer who refuses to become a political indentured servant. I have served as the editor of a Michigan State university minority newspaper (Grapevine Journal), an US Air Force Base newspaper (Nellis Bullseye), and as managing editor of the Atlanta Voice. My service includes serving as a past president of the Atlanta Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists; president of Minorities in Cable, and co-founder of MOCA (Mediators of Color in America). My background includes an extensive history in dispute resolution, including a stint as the co-chair of the Community Sector for the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR).

View my complete profile

Manuel Diaz Fatal Shooting By Police Officer Makes Community Question Law Enforcement’s Motives

By AMY TAXIN 07/23/12 10:43 PM ET      AP      

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The densely packed neighborhood where police shot to death an unarmed man this weekend and angry residents faced off with authorities in fiery clashes is just a few miles up the road from Disneyland but a world away from the theme park’s shine and shimmer.

Manuel Diaz, 25, of Santa Ana, CA, killed by Anaheim police July 21, 2012.

With another officer-involved killing Sunday, involving a man who allegedly shot at police, residents of this city of 336,000 people are questioning what has made officers resort to deadly force and crack down on demonstrators by firing pepper ball and bean bag rounds.

The killings take the tally of officer-involved shootings to six so far this year, up from four a year before, said Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn. Five of the incidents this year have been fatal.

“It concerns me when we have any officer-involved shooting,” said Police Chief John Welter, adding that he believes an uptick in gang-related crime in the last eight to 10 months is driving the increase.

“There just seems to be a lot more violence between the gangs. As a result, we’ve increased our gang unit, which has increased our contact with gang members,” he said.

Anaheim is a city of contrasts that ranges from upscale, hilltop homes to packed, gritty apartment complexes. The city 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles is known as home to the Angels baseball team, and above all, to world-famous Disneyland.

Protesters confront police over the July 21, 2012 killihg of Manuel Diaz.

Mayor Tom Tait issued a statement Monday calling on the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office to aid a full, independent investigation.

In the largely Hispanic, working-class neighborhood where 25-year-old Manuel Diaz was killed Saturday afternoon, residents left candles, flowers and posters blasting police and questioned why officers would shoot a man they said was a gang member but didn’t have a gun or appear to be committing a crime.

Jose Gallardo, 30, said he was chatting with Manuel Diaz in an alley behind the complex Saturday afternoon just a few minutes before he saw an unmarked police car pull up carrying two officers. Gallardo said he stayed away to avoid drawing attention from police until he heard two shots and went running.

Protester against Diaz killing puts cops on notice.

“He was laying there, dead,” Gallardo said, adding that he saw bullet marks in his friend’s lower back and neck. “They were searching him – I was like, why are you searching him? He’s dead right there.”

The death sparked two nights of protests. On Saturday, angry demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles at officers who were securing the scene for investigators, and police responded by firing bean bags and pepper balls at the crowd.

The next morning, protesters stormed a news conference at police headquarters. Later that night, demonstrators set fire to a trash bin and pushed it into the street outside the apartment complex, which was still strewn with litter early Monday from the unrest.

Welter said the shooting occurred after two officers approached three men who were acting suspiciously in an alleyway before running away. One of the officers chased Diaz to the front of the apartment complex.

Woman wounded by police during protest against Manuel Diaz shooting.

The chief would not say what exactly led the officer to shoot Diaz, who authorities say was a known gang member. But Diaz wasn’t just hanging out in the alley. He failed to heed police orders to stop and threw something on the roof of the complex that contained what officers believe to be heroin, Welter said.

“He certainly was running from police and not stopping,” Welter said. “That’s no justification for shooting him, so I will be interested in what the district attorney finds out.”

Both officers were placed on paid leave pending an investigation.

Video below, taken shortly after shooting, shows police allowed Diaz to die, watching him moving and twitching for at least three minutes.

The second officer-involved shooting occurred Sunday when anti-gang officers spotted a suspected gang member in a stolen sport utility vehicle. A brief pursuit ended when three people jumped from the SUV and ran, authorities said.

Joel Acevedo, at right.

During the chase, a suspect [allegedly] fired one or two rounds at an officer. The officer returned fire, killing the gunman, who was identified as 21-year-old Joel Mathew Acevedo, Dunn said.

Both incidents were under investigation by the county’s district attorney office, which asked witnesses to come forward with information or video footage of Saturday’s shooting.

Online court records show Diaz was convicted last year of drug possession, and three years earlier of possessing a firearm on school grounds and being a member of a criminal street gang.

Mourners at site of Manuel Diaz killing July 24, 2012.

On Monday, residents remembered him as a young man who was friendly to people in the neighborhood and stopped to read posters affixed to a fence near the spot where Diaz was shot. The signs read, “another person dead” and “stop killing, start protecting.”

Junior Lagunas, 19, had his forearm wrapped in white bandages and a hospital identification bracelet around his wrist as he recovered from being bitten by a police dog during the Saturday night melee.

Lagunas said he went outside with his girlfriend and 1-year-old son to observe the commotion when police began firing something, possibly bean bags, at the crowd.

He said he ducked and pushed the child, still in his stroller, to the ground, then turned around and saw a dog gnaw on his arm, leaving teeth marks and drawing blood.

“It’s just crazy, the cops are going crazy on us,” said Lagunas, who was friendly with Diaz.

Video captured by a KCAL-TV crew showed a chaotic scene as some people ducked to the ground and others scattered screaming. A man is seen yelling at an officer even as a weapon is pointed at him. Two adults huddled to shield a boy and girl.

Police said five people, two of them juveniles, were arrested that night. Authorities said the dog accidentally escaped from a patrol car, and the incident is being investigated by the department.

Police also are reviewing the use of bean bags and pepper spray during the protests, which grew raucous when officers moved to arrest someone in the crowd suspected of committing a minor crime, Welter said. The man was later found to be wanted in a murder case.

Carroll Seron, a professor of criminology at University of California, Irvine, said relations between police and minority communities are often tense and an incident such as a shooting can trigger a loud reaction.

Kelly Thomas, beaten to death in 2011 by Fullerton CA police.

“In lots of instances, people kind of reach a threshold where they feel their communities are a little bit under siege,” she said.

The shootings in Anaheim came a year after an unarmed, mentally ill homeless man died after a violent confrontation with police in the nearby city of Fullerton. The death of Kelly Thomas sparked protests by outraged residents, criminal charges against two officers, an FBI investigation and the recall of three elected councilmembers.

Outside the Anaheim apartment complex, Caleb Fuentes, 23, left flowers for Diaz, a man he said was like a big brother when the two played junior varsity basketball at Anaheim High School.

Fuentes said he hadn’t seen Diaz since those days but wondered if he, too, could end up like his old friend.

“If I wore baggy clothes and had a shaved head, would they shoot me, too?” he said.

___

Associated Press videojournalist Raquel Maria Dillon contributed to this report.

Also read http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/stat-j26.shtml for more on killings and protests, with statement from presidential candidate.

Warren Lee Hill: is elimination of two drugs in legal injection process “cruel and unusual” punishment?

State’s high court halted execution due to change in lethal injection process; 

Hill’s lawyers have also contended he is mentally disabled 

By NBC News and news services

July 24, 2012

The Georgia Supreme Court halted the execution of Warren Lee Hill, a death-row inmate who had been scheduled to die at 7 p.m. on Monday at the state penitentiary at Jackson.

At issue is whether the Department of Corrections’ decision to switch to a one-drug formula violates state rules, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The state announced the change last week, which Hill’s lawyers challenged.

The high court said in a statement Monday that it would consider the challenge because such a change requires public hearings and a 30-day public comment period.

Hill was the first inmate set to be executed in Georgia since the state changed its execution procedure last week from a three-drug injection to a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital.

Hill was convicted in the Aug. 17, 1990, beating death of another inmate. Hill was serving a life sentence at the time for the shooting death of his 18-year-old girlfriend.

His lawyers argue that Hill is mentally disabled – significant because federal law prohibits states from executing the mentally disabled. But the state said the defense hadn’t conclusively shown that Hill has a mental disability.

On July 18, Yokamon Hearn, 33, became the first prisoner killed with the one-drug formula. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials announced last week they were modifying the three-drug injection method used since 1982 because the state’s supply of one of the drugs — the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide — has expired.

Hearn’s lawyers had argued that his mother drank alcohol when she was pregnant, stunting his neurological development and leaving him with mental impairments that disqualify him from execution under earlier Supreme Court rulings. Testing shows Hearn’s IQ is too high for him to be considered mentally impaired.

Ohio, Arizona, Idaho and Washington have already adopted a single-drug procedure.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

VOD: Now the alleged global economic crisis has resulted in even more horrendous suffering for those already subjected to the cruelest penalty possible.