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

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.

At City Council table Jan. 31, 2005: (l t r) CFO Sean Werdlow, UBS representative (in background), Stephen Murphy of Standard & Poors, Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings, Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams push for (then) $1.2 billion pension obligation certificate deal with USB, minority partner.

• UBS is member of US Dollar LIBOR panel that manipulated rates
• Banks also under criminal investigation by DOJ, SEC, CFTC and others; UBS already cited by DOJ for $18 billion tax cheat scandal
• Detroit should join anti-trust action, initiate moratorium on debt,  instead of punishing workers, poor

By Diane Bukowski 

July 22, 2012 

(Note: the author reported on the Detroit POC deal beginning in 2005, while writing for the Michigan Citizen, and has exposed its fall-out repeatedly in the Voice of Detroit.)

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and administration engineered 2005 POC deal with UBS.

DETROIT – In 2005, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former Chief Financial Officer Sean Werdlow cut a deal with Swiss-based global giant UBS Financial Services and its minority partner Siebert, Brandford, Shank & Co. to borrow $1.2 BILLION in so-called “pension obligation certificates” (POC’s) from their firms.

Due to subsequent re-financings, that amount has now become $2 BILLION.

Kilpatrick said the city had a $300 million deficit and threatened to lay off 2,000 workers if the deal was not approved. There was broad opposition from four City Council members, both pension boards, and the city’s unions.

Former City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail in 2005.

“This is a very risky transaction,” former Councilwoman Sharon McPhail told Kilpatrick.

“Your own people at your economic forum called this [POC borrowing] one of the seven deadly sins of municipal finance,” McPhail explained. “If the deal doesn’t do what is expected, we could face receivership under the local government Fiscal Responsibility Act. If the stock market does well, that $1.5  billion in unfunded pension liability could go away, but we’d still owe it in bonds.”

“So what?” Kilpatrick responded.

UBS, S&P, Fitch came to Council table 

UBS, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings all sent their representatives to the Council table on Jan. 31, 2005 to push for a yes vote (see top photo taken by this author). The ratings agencies threatened negative action against Detroit if the deal did not go through.

Brewer Recreation Center was among 22 closed in 2006.

Despite objections, the Council approved the deal 8-0 on Feb. 4, 2005.

At Wall Street’s insistence, Kilpatrick afterwards laid off 1,396 workers anyway. Shortly after his election that year, he closed 22 recreation centers along with other cuts.  But Standard & Poor’s shrugged even at that, downgrading Detroit’s debt to BBB-, a step above junk level. Downgrades this year have sunk Detroit’s rating to C-, below junk level, the lowest rate for any major city in the country.

“The administration’s hesitancy to cut positions, as well as the inability to adjust union contracts to gain savings, has deepened the budget gap for fiscal 2006,” S & P said at the time. They also cited the city’s “high level of debt,” which ironically included the $1.2 billion POC deal.

Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, now a managing partner with Siebert, Brandford, Shank & Co., one of lenders in Detroit POC deal.

Werdlow left the administration after the election. He is now a managing partner with Siebert, Brandford, Shank & Co. Former Mayor Dennis Archer likely also benefited, since he was a lobbyist for UBS. Neither has faced charges  despite the ongoing federal criminal case lodged against Kilpatrick and four others related to water department and pension board contracts.

Detroit POC deal part of world-wide predatory lending orgy

It is now apparent that the POC deal was part of an orgy of predatory lending by banks in the U.S. and world-wide, which resulted in the historic 2008 economic collapse, when “the bubble burst.”

The story of that orgy is laid out in the 2010 movie, “Inside Job,” by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Charles Ferguson.

In 2009, Detroit defaulted on the POC loan. UBS and other parties demanded a $400 million payment, one-third of the city’s budget. To stave off the default, former Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. agreed to hand over all the city’s casino income taxes to US Bancorp as trustee, and increase the total amount, to ensure payment of the deal.

McPhail’s words turned out to be prophetic, as Detroit is now indeed in the grips of the successor to the Local Government Fiscal Responsibility Act, Public Act 4.

US Bancorp’s HQ in Portland, Oregon. As US Bank NA, they are trustee over all of Detroit’s casino tax and state revenue-sharing income.

US Bancorp also gets all of the Detroit’s state revenue-sharing funds, along with a hefty service fee for sending them along to UBS and other creditors. Those funds are now additionally controlled by State Treasurer Andy Dillon under the April 4, 2012 “Fiscal Stability [consent] Agreement.”

Cities, states, investors sue UBS, other banks

On Aug. 5, 2011, the City of Baltimore lodged a class-action anti-trust lawsuit against Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Citibank NA, HSBC Holdings PLC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group PLC, Westlb AB, and UBS AG for rigging rates in interest swaps, causing the city of Baltimore and others to lose up to  billions of dollars that should have been spent on services for their residents, among other damages.

They alleged that the defendants’ conspired to “unlawfully manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate for the U.S. dollar (‘LIBOR’) from August 1, 2007 through such time as the effects of the Defendants’ illegal conduct ceased . . . .”

The banks named were all members of the U.S. Dollar LIBOR panel, which set global borrowing rates.

“Defendants devised and executed their scheme to manipulate LIBOR in order to benefit their financial positions,” says Baltimore’s initial suit. “Throughout the Class Period, Defendants sold financial products which tied rates of return to LIBOR. By manipulating LIBOR, Defendants paid lower returns to customers who bought those financial products.”

Regarding UBS, the suit says, “Defendant UBS AG (“UBS”) is a Swiss company based in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland. During the class period, UBS was a member of the British Bankers’ Association’s U.S. dollar LIBOR panel.”

UBS Bank’s offices in New York City.

It thus alleges that while UBS was hounding the City of Detroit for its money, it was criminally violating the Sherman Anti-Trust law and profiting from the proceeds.

The suit has mushroomed into a mammoth federal class action, “IN RE LIBOR-BASED FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS ANTITRUST LITIGATION,” Docket No. 11-md-2262.  The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated 21 lawsuits filed by cities, states, investors and other plaintiffs against the banks into the action, for pre-trial purposes.

In addition to the banks cited by the City of Baltimore, defendants now include Credit Suisse Group AG, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Deutsche Bank, and the Norinchukin Bank.

U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of Southern District of NY receives bar award.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the Southern District of New York state is hearing the case.

On June 29, the defendants except for Barclays and UBS, which are expected to file separate motions, moved to dismiss the claims. The plaintiffs have not yet responded, and no dates for hearings have yet been set.

U.S., Japan, UK, others conducting criminal investigations

Numerous governmental investigations are also underway in the U.S. and abroad. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) are among those involved.

Robert Wolf, outgoing president of UBS in the United States, one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s major campaign contributors.

Judge Buchwald has ruled that the government agencies do not have to turn over their investigative documents for use in the civil case, despite demands by the litigants. Due to government ties with the banks involved, including U.S. President Barack Obama’s ties to UBS, one of his largest campaign contributors, it is likely government officials are trying to minimize the impact of the lawsuit.

Attorneys with Sedgwick, LLC of the United Kingdom authored a summary of the case published July 5, 2012. They wrote that Barclays has already been fined, although not criminally charged:

“The record-breaking £59.5 million fine imposed on Barclays by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and $360 million penalty imposed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice in connection with the improper submission of London InterBank Offered Rate (Libor) rates has led to intense public scrutiny of Barclays’ practices, procedures and management and possible misconduct by other financial institutions.”

Barclay’s outgoing CEO Bob Diamond in London.

The Sedgwick attorneys also say that Japan has imposed sanctions on Citigroup and UBS, accusing them of “asking other banks for an advantageous rate in violation of Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.”

UBS settled $18 billion in US DOJ tax cheat charges for $780 million;  got $74.5 billion Fed Reserve bailout, $800M AIG taxpayer bailout 

While bludgeoning the City of Detroit to pay back the $2 billion POC deal, UBS was exposed as a haven for wealthy tax cheaters by the US DOJ. UBS allegedly helped its U.S. clients  hide $18 billion in income in 19,000 secret Swiss bank accounts. It paid a paltry $780 million fine to prevent an indictment that FINMA, the Swiss regulatory agency,  said “would have threatened its existence.”

That did not stop the U.S. Federal Reserve from bailing it out after the 2008 global banking meltdown to the tune of $74.5 billion.

“Federal Reserve data showing UBS AG and Barclays Plc ranked among the top users of $3.3 trillion from emergency programs is stoking debate on whether U.S. regulators bear responsibility for aiding other nations’ banks,” according to a Dec. 2010 Bloomberg News article.

“UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday. London-based Barclays Plc took the biggest single amount under another program that made overnight loans, when it got $47.9 billion on Sept. 18, 2008.”

UBS also raked in $800 million as a silent partner in the taxpayer bailout of insurance giant AIG, according to CNN.com.

MAKE UBS PAY!  POC deal likely the largest factor in Detroit debt crisis 

Although some have reported that Baltimore stands to gain only small amounts from its lawsuit against UBS and other financial giants, Detroit’s POC deal with UBS ranks as one of the largest in history.

Michigan State Treasurer Andy Dillon at second meeting of Financial Advisory Board June 28, 2012 in WSU Law School’s Spencer Partrick Auditorium.

That deal has come back to haunt the city repeatedly. In 2009 alone, the city appropriated funds to pay $106, 911, 659 for that year’s “POC Swap Hedge Payment.” Continued threats of default have been used to pressure the city to cede control of large parts of its income.

Wall Street downgrades of the city’s debt rating have forced the city to pay hundreds of millions more in interest rates on new loans, including on Detroit Water and Sewerage Department bonds. DWSD is an enterprise agency separate from the city’s general fund which has previously received AAA ratings on its debt, but Wall Street is using the general fund downgrade to bleed more money out of Detroit, the poorest major city in the U.S.

Currently, City Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon is deciding whether to appeal a lawsuit to overturn the April 4 consent agreement. US Bancorp and State Treasurer Andy Dillon have threatened to withhold not only income from a $137 million loan guaranteed by state revenue-sharing funds and made part of the consent agreement, but also other state revenue-sharing payments.

Marchers demand moratorium on or cancellation of Detroit’s debt to the banks May 9, 2012.

It is the global banks, and in particular UBS, which have put Detroit under this yoke of slavery. When will city leaders stand up to them, at least by joining in the anti-trust lawsuit initiated by the City of Baltimore? Then they can declare a moratorium on the city’s debt to the banks as former Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy proposed during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, so that the city’s people can be provided with homes, health care, food, jobs, and the other necessities of life.

(Copies of this article are being sent to Mayor Dave Bing, the City Council, Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon, COO Chris Brown, PMD Kriss Andrews, CFO Jack Martin, the Financial Advisory board, Treasurer Andy Dillon, Gov. Rick Snyder, US Attorney General Eric Holder, and US President Barack Obama with requests for their comments and action.)

Related links:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/20/libor-scandal-could-turn-ugly-as-cities-begin-to-sue-banks/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/18/war-on-city-workers-wrong-dirty-and-low-down/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/16/detroiters-sue-city-officials-to-void-consent-agreement-next-hearing-thurs-july-26-9am/

Click on the following PDF’s of other related articles:

DETROIT POC DEAL STORIES FROM MICHIGAN CITIZEN BY DIANE BUKOWSKI, BANKOLE THOMPSON

Libor manipulation probe and litigation update Sedgwick LLP

Detroit POC Crains

Banks get paid while Detroiters lose MC

UBS END GAME The Federal Reserve is now bailing out the world

UBS received 800 million in US bailout

Links to LIBOR lawsuit documents will be included once they are downsized to fit this site.

Also read 2010 Wall Street Journal article, “Interest Rate Deals Sting Cities, States” by clicking on INTEREST RATE DEALS STING CITIES, STATES, which details efforts some cities were making at the time to re-negotiate deals after the market went south in 2008. Below is chart from SEIU study cited in the article, which shows Detroit paid $107.1 million in questionable nterest rate swaps in 2010, the fourth highest amount in the country, despite the fact that Detroit was not even among the country’s 10 largest cities. Click on SEIU Study Interest Rate Swaps to download this two-page report.