VOD: go to Occupy Oakland website at http://occupyoakland.org/; donations are needed for bail funds and can be contributed through the site, which has ongoing coverage of these heroic events.
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – Riot police fought running skirmishes with anti-Wall Street protesters on Saturday, firing tear gas and bean bag projectiles and arresting more than 200 people in clashes that injured three officers and at least one demonstrator.
Occupy Oakland protesters burn American flag Jan. 29, 2012
Three police officers and one protester were injured during the clashes, the city said, without detailing their conditions. Internet broadcasts by activists showed several demonstrators being treated by paramedics or loaded into ambulances.
The scuffles erupted in the afternoon as activists from the Occupy movement sought to take over a shuttered downtown convention center, sparking cat-and-mouse battles that lasted well into the night in a city that has seen tensions between police and protesters boil over repeatedly.
“Occupy Oakland has got to stop using Oakland as its playground,” Mayor Jean Quan, who has come under criticism for the city’s handling of the Occupy movement, said at a late evening press conference.
A group of police officers from various law enforcement agencies arrest an Occupy Oakland demonstrator near Frank H. Ogawa Plaza during a day-long protest in Oakland, California January 28, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
“Once again, a violent splinter group of the Occupy movement is engaging in violent actions against Oakland,” she said, speaking as officers in riot gear were still lined up against demonstrators in downtown intersections.
City Council President Larry Reid said a group of protesters broke into City Hall, damaging exhibits and burning a U.S. flag.
Occupy Oakland organizers had earlier vowed to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a headquarters, hoping to revitalize a movement against economic inequality that lost momentum after police cleared protest camps from cities across the country late last year.
A group of Occupy Oakland demonstrators climb a fence to escape arrest during a day-long protest in Oakland, California January 28, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
They also hoped to draw attention to homelessness in the attempted building takeover, seen as a challenge to authorities who have blocked similar efforts before.
A police spokesman said more than 200 people had been arrested during the day following altercations that began when activists tried to tear down a chain-link fence surrounding the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.
“The 1 percent have all these empty buildings, and meanwhile there are all these homeless people,” protester Omar Yassin said.
‘IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES’
Police in riot gear moved in, firing smoke grenades, tear gas and bean-bag projectiles to drive the crowd back.
“Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares,” the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. “Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas.”
Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.
“The city of Oakland welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and freedom of speech but acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated,” police said in a statement.
Hundreds of demonstrators regrouped and marched through downtown Oakland, where they were repeatedly confronted by police in riot gear. Police at several points fired flash-bang grenades into the crowd and swung batons at protesters.
A group of demonstrators ultimately made their way to City Hall, where they brought out a U.S. flag and set it on fire before scattering ahead of advancing officers.
Several hundred people remained in the streets well after dark, facing off against lines of riot police holding batons who demonstrators sometimes taunted as “pigs.”
Protesters in Oakland loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York last year have repeatedly clashed with police during a series of marches and demonstrations.
Elsewhere, the National Park Service said on Friday it would bar Occupy protesters in the nation’s capital, one of the few big cities where Occupy encampments survive, from camping in two parks where they have been living since October.
That order, which takes effect on Monday, was seen as a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.
(submitted by Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington Bureau contributing editor)
What a difference a day makes in the campaign for the U.S. Presidency. The South Carolina Republican Primary was won by Newt Gingrich, a Georgian with a great deal of political baggage. According to exit poll data, evangelical Christians, Tea Party members and over 50-year-old Southerners gave the former House Speaker 40% of the South Carolinian vote (243,153 votes). Mitt Romney earned 27.8% of the vote (167,279 votes), Rick Santorum earned 17% (102, 055 votes), and Ron Paul earned 13% (77,933 votes). Let’s take a closer look at the two front runners.
Newt Gingrich
What are the nature and the origins of Newt Gingrich’s victory? Having won the presidential debates while displaying vehemence and partisan warriorhood, he was belligerent in the face of hard questions by news people like Juan Williams of Fox News Network. He made racist comments in South Carolina that are not worthy of repeating. The comments reveal his political psychology while his actual movie-in-tribute to Ronald Reagan demonstrates to Tea Party members that he will keep up the conservative wing of the party.
As a holder of a Ph.D. in Modern European History and as the author of 27 books, Gingrich is an avid thinker. After serving as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, he understands the social and cultural nuances—and the political nature and history—of the 435 U.S. Congressional Districts. For example, he won each of the seven Congressional Districts in South Carolina.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn
In response, the Assistant Democratic Leader, Representative James Clyburn of the 6th Congressional District in SC, stated in an interview on CSPAN the day after the election that, “[Newt Gingrich] denigrates the Office of the Presidency and people trying to make a way during these tough economic times.” It is important to remember, of course, that South Carolina was the scene of race baiting in the Democratic presidential primaries in 2008. Also, since 1980 the S.C. Republican primary winner has gone on to be the Republican Presidential nominee.
But while Gingrich captures the SC victory and much of the attention these past few days, most election watchers are wondering what happened to former front runner Mitt Romney? He has offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands that have been traced back to P.O. Boxes at the local post office; he has consistently paid a low tax rate of 15%; and his Party seems troubled to discern where he actually stands on hot-bed political issues. As a result, Governor Romney finds himself on the defensive regarding the tax returns that as of Monday, January 23, 2012, he still refuses to release. By most accounts, he is in a political tailspin.
Mitt Romney
Case in point: Mitt Romney’s religious affiliation (he is a Mormon) and financial decisions were underlying factors to his defeat in SC, and more than ever people are talking about both issues. Although better financed than the other candidates, Romney has lost any semblance of invulnerability—and just as the Florida primaries begin. Add to this the reversal of fortune in Iowa, wherein after a vote count Rick Santorum was the actual victor. For the first time in American political history, the first three primaries have three distinct winners.
What is the “political mathematics” of the Republican Presidential Primary’s end game? According to the Republican Party (and adopted by the RNC in September 2008), of the 2,286 possible delegates, a candidate must accumulate 1,144 delegates to win the primaries. Currently, of the pledged delegates, Gingrich has 27, Ron Paul has 10, Mitt Romney has 18, and Rick Santorum has 7. The state of Florida is a winner-takes-all delegates state. The previous states have split the delegates based on percentage of the votes.
Before the Florida primary begins on January 29th, the primary debates unfold on January 23 and 26 in Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida. The interaction of leadership among the three million African Americans in Florida is imperative to shaping the debates. With 24 congressional districts and four African American Members of Congress in the State (that’s three Democrats and one Republican), the following issues should be substantially addressed: Latino immigration and employment and financing opportunities. As we tune into the debates and the discussions, it is imperative that African American and Latino scholars and organizers find meaningful ways to impact the election both on the Republican and the Democratic fronts.
Dennis B. Rogers, PhD is a graduate of the Howard University Department of Political Science where he majored in Political Theory and Black Politics. He was a friend, colleague, and student of Dr. Ronald Walters. He resides in Washington, DC, and can be reached at http://www.DennisBRogers.info or email at Dennis.Rogers.PhD@Gmail.com.
Diane Bukowski under arrest the day President Obama was elected in 2008, for covering state trooper chase that resulted in deaths of two Black Detroit men.
I am one of Detroit’s 700,000 “dirt-poor” residents, as Jack Lessenberry called us in his column of January 25, 2012, I am absolutely appalled that the Metro Times allows this man to continue writing for you. After killer cops Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn beat steelworker Malice Green to death in 1992, Lessenberry called Green a “crackhead.” His column “Help Snyder” is the last straw.
“How will the remaining 700,000 mostly dirt-poor Detroiters get themselves out from under this mountain of debt, while maintaining some minimal standard of city services?” Jack asks. “They can’t, they never will, simple as that.” Then he calls for the city to be folded into Wayne County.
He blames all critics of the emergency manager law for not coming up with alternative solutions, and Detroit’s politicians for incurring the city’s debt ($579 million paid in 2011-12).
Jack Lessenberry
Where was he in 2005 when Wall Street in the persons of Stephen Murphy from Standard and Poors and Joe O’Keefe from Fitch Ratings (photo at top) actually came to the table to twist the city council’s arms to borrow $1.5 billion in pension obligation certificates from UBS AG, the second-largest assets management firm in the world? The city’s pension boards and unions vehemently opposed this action. It amounted to the city borrowing its entire outstanding obligation to the pension funds for years to come.
UBS Logo, pictured Tuesday, February 14, 2006 in Zurich, Switzerland. Swiss based UBS AG, Europe’s largest bank, reported Tuesday, 14 February 2006, a record fourth-quarter profit. For the full year UBS posted a net profit rose of 75 percent to 14.029 billion francs. (KEYSTONE/Walter Bieri)
In 2009, the city defaulted on that debt and UBS AG called it in. A complete financial collapse was averted only because the city agreed to hand US Bank NA its entire casino taxes and state revenue-sharing funds annually, so it can lop off enough to pay off the debt. US Bank NA gets an unknown fee for this “service.” I’ve never seen an accounting from US Bank NA on how they distribute the funds, so who knows how much they ACTUALLY take?
Ob, by the way, Wall Street is rooting for a Detroit EM. Fitch Ratings has already said the appointment of one will precipitate an immediate demand from the banks for $400,000, and then some.
Occupy Oakland march during November general strike
Where’s Jack been over the last six months, as Occupy Wall Street has taken the nation’s banks to task for getting bailed out with OUR taxes and still foreclosing on millions across the country, using illegal sub-prime mortgages and other fraud? Detroit’s neighborhoods are a shell of their former selves as a result.
The well-known Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Shut-offs has raised the demand for a moratorium on the city’s debt to the banks. Detroit’s former Mayor Frank Murphy and former Detroit U.S. Congressman Clarence McLeod called for a TEN-YEAR moratorium on the debts of cities across the country during the 1930’s, so that their mayors could take care of the homeless and starving masses.
Home on York Road, Jack Lessenberry’s street in Huntington Woods
According to on-line records, Jack lives in Huntington Woods, whose population is currently 96 percent white and one percent Black according to current U.S. census figues. Median household income is $104, 879. Two percent of the city’s population lives below the poverty level. Seventy-eight percent of residents over 25 have at least a bachelor’s degree. The city actually has a rainy-day fund, which it used to help erase a $170,000 deficit in the last fiscal year.
Rather typical low-iincome Detroit home on West Parkway; resident was severely injured in fire after her utilities were shut-off
Detroit’s population is 82.7 percent Black, and 10.2 percent white. Median household income is $28, 357. The percentage of Detroit residents living in poverty is 34.5 percent. The percentage of Detroiters with bachelor’s degrees is 11.8 percent.
How does Jack Lessenberry, living in the wealth, comfort and security of Huntington Woods, in a four-bedroom, air-conditioned home worth $302,700 according to the website Zillow, have the gall to make any declaration regarding the manner in which Detroiters should run their own business?
Jack Lessenberry is a DISGRACE. I call on all Metro Times advertisers and readers to boycott the paper until he is FIRED.
From Diane Bukowski, lifelong Detroit resident, 63 years; City of Detroit retiree and union leader, Editor of the Voice of Detroit
Pontiac, Michigan is one of the first cities in Michigan to fall victim to the fascist Public Act 4. As most cities who have suffered under the crippling results of de-industrialization, Pontiac has seen enormous poverty, unemployment, the destabilization of human infrastructure via more single parent families, lack of prenatal, post-natal and child health care resulting in infant mortality, childhood illness and lack of access to even basic health care as they become teens.
These circumstances have led to many extenuating problems such as de-population which means less federal dollars. It has meant tougher classrooms for teachers to try and educate their students in with less resources, larger classroom sizes due to layoffs and reductions in revenue sharing from the state, which affects both the governmental side as well as education.
These factors are weighty enough alone; with the added oppression of Public Act 4 and the ruthlessness and cold heartedness of so called Emergency Managers, who never have to live with the decisions they make in public policy, finances, selling or giving away precious city assets and disbanding of critical departments and the elimination of caring and sensitive workers and department heads, it is nearly insurmountable.
EFM Fred Leeb, appointed in 2009 by Gov. Jennifer Granholm
In Pontiac, we have had three different EM’s. The first was so racist in his views that he couldn’t contain them in any substantive way. He came in with enormous preconceived notions about African Americans. He called for extraordinary measures in security so paranoid that even the police found it over the top. He demanded security cameras in every room of the mayor’s office, police escorts to and from his car, buzzers and trip alarms.
He sold the Pontiac Silverdome for $583, 000 which cost the taxpayers of Pontiac nearly 35 years to pay off the nearly 30 million it cost to build it. After paying electric bills and the auctioneers who sold the “dome”, Pontiac didn’t get the $583, 000. Merely clearing the Silverdome from being a drain on the general fund and on to the tax rolls was the excuse used for such a horrendously low price. In reality the people who bought it were cronies.
Michigan Stampfler, Pontiac EFM #2
The second EM decided that it was better to dissolve Pontiac altogether if he could. His draconian measures of cutting the city council and mayor’s pay to zero and cutting off all communication with the duly elected council were his last efforts before leaving. The citizens kept up the pressure in both these instances through constant speeches and harassment at council meetings during the public discussion period. It was this pressure that eventually caused these first two EM’s to call it quits.
The third EM was the author of Public Act 4 and a founding member to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a right wing Republican think tank whose sole purpose was to design legislation that would wrest control of cities from local officials, especially in mostly black and poor communities, bust up unions and unified voices of opposition to complete and total privatization of city services, usurp rule of city resources and sell them to friends, cronies, corporations and individual moguls.
Louis Schimmel, Pontiac EM #3 appointed by Gov. Snyder in 2011
This EM is considered the “godfather” of Public Act 4 and the entire concept behind privatization and cronie capitalism. He has gotten rid of the police department and its union, recently he got rid of the 150 year old fire department through strong arm methods, and gave two million dollars annually of Pontiac tax money to neighboring Waterford to shore up their budget shortfall by giving their city our fire contract for a mere 4 million plus 2 million as so-called “administrative costs.”
The EM has slowly locked out city council members from city hall, kept council uninformed of any measures he takes in the city, has co opted the mayor by reinstating his pay but now as a paid consultant to the EM.
This means that as mayor, any measures taken by the EM regardless of their implications to the city or the welfare of it’s citizens, the elected mayor rubber stamps those initiatives. He has been silenced and is now an admitted member of the EM’s “team.” The mayor has “advised” the EM on every issue since his arrival and has publicly stated that he is in agreement with Public Act 4. A recall effort then ensued by the citizens and it is in process at this writing.
Public Act 4 meets all the criteria as fascism and colonialism. Public Act 4 has taken the voices of democracy from Pontiac and replaced them with a dictator, a tyrant and though the word “negotiation” has been bandied about as the EM took our police and fire departments, there were no negotiations at all. There were only mandates shrouded under the guise of negotiations. Since the EM had the extraordinary state sanctioned power to do whatever he wanted to anyway, then negotiations were nothing more than a sad ruse, a grotesque absurdity which virtually put a gun to the heads of unions which said, either agree to the EM’s terms or be fired anyway.
The Concerned Pontiac Citizens for Self Determination, a local cadre of citizens who vehemently oppose this fascist “law” have been at the forefront of struggle not only for the elimination of Public Acts 72 and 4 but also those ideologues behind such an effort to strip basic elementary human rights and civil freedoms from the People in all areas of activity including law, politics, economics and every aspect of life in which encroachments such as Public Acts 72, 4, the Patriot Act, Rex 84 and other “laws” which are unjust and oppressive exist.
Michigan Forward and Detroit Branch NAACP Call On Governor For Transparent And Accountable Review Teams
January 25th, 2012 | By Michigan Forward, Repeal Public Act 4
On Monday, January 23, Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder received a letter from Michigan Forward and the Detroit Branch NAACP calling for greater transparency and accountability from the Governor’s teams conducting emergency management reviews in Detroit and Inkster. The letter mailed on Friday, January 20, 2012 cites alarming trends disenfranchising Michigan residents affected by financial mismanagement and resolving fiscal crisis.
Both organizations view the emergency management review process as a huge red flag to the manner in how Gov. Snyder applies the absolute power afforded to his administration over communities in financial distress. Neither team conducting emergency financial reviews in Inkster or Detroit has held open meetings with the public to inform and engage their local communities and taxpayers.
Michigan Forward head Brandon Jessup
“Public Act 4 is a glaring example of how ineffective this law is; taxpayers are the last notified, but the first billed in this process and that’s not fair,” says Brandon Jessup, Chairman and CEO, Michigan Forward. “The exclusion of community members severely discredits the ‘early warning’ theory often used by Michigan’s Chief Executive. Public Act 4 provides a blank check to special interests focused on selling public assets, eliminating public contracts and dissolving Democracy.”
Michigan Forward points to the Detroit City Council led public hearing held on December 1, 2011 as a strong example of Democracy in action. Leaders from many local labor organizations and community groups presented short-term solutions to Detroit’s City Council that could provide cost savings into the hundreds of millions.
“As long as this process is conducted in the dark, residents lose, back-room discussions will continue and the integrity of this process will continue to ebb,” says Jessup. “Cutting the city’s short term deficit must be priority, however, we can’t discuss public debt without a public process. Public Act 4 doesn’t get to the heart of the problem in Michigan’s broken core communities; they are all lacking revenue. In light of an emergency we expect the Governor, Treasurer and their appointees to recognize and address this in a progressive working fashion.”
Michigan Forward, the Detroit Branch NAACP and allies against Public Act 4 remain committed to constructing progressive solutions to the financial crisis many municipalities and school districts face here in Michigan. Our suggestions encourage a review process that opens the door of transparency and accountability.
“How can we affectively help the people if we eliminate the people from the very process that is supposed to convey to the people what the problems are?” says Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, President, Detroit Branch NAACP. “We cannot say transparency for some and closed door decisions for others. Let the doors be opened.” The nation’s largest NAACP unit has collected over 10,000 petition signatures since December to help repeal Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law.
The letter calls for the governor to immediately direct his present and future review teams to hold public meetings, follow the guidelines set in Michigan’s Open Meeting Act of 1976 and implement five additional principles:
Meetings held by review teams be held within the municipality or school district under financial review
Financial review team meetings are publicly posted 10 days before the meeting date; including the date, time and place of the meeting
Meetings of review teams under Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law are posted on the official website of the Michigan Department of Treasury
Minutes of review teams meetings are posted on the official website of the Michigan Department of Treasury
Review teams use the entire 60-day review period to conduct an open, transparent review of municipal or school district finances and fiscal health.
The effort to repeal Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law has collected over 190,000 signatures enroute to its goal of 250,000. Only 161,304 valid voter signatures are needed to place the issue on the ballot in November 2012. When the signatures are validated, PA 4 is suspended until the general election.
Michigan Forward Secretary Treasurer LaToya Henry explains petition requirements; Ms. Henry has a masters' degree in broadcast journalism and runs her own communications, public relations, marketing and branding firm, WardHill Omni Media LLC.
By Diane Bukowski
January 25, 2011
DETROIT — LaToya Henry, secretary-treasurer of Michigan Forward, which initiated the petition drive to Repeal Public Act 4, reported encouraging news Jan. 24 at the NAACP “Allies and Issues” meeting.
“As of today, we have collected over 190,000 signatures on the petitions to repeal Public Act 4,” she said. “Our goal is 250,000 [only 161,000 valid signatures are required]. We have until March 29 to turn the petitions in, but we are not waiting. We have set a target date of February 29 for everyone to turn in their petitions still out there. Detroiters can turn in petitions either to the AFSCME Council 25 Hall [600 W. Lafayette in downtown Detroit], or to the NAACP office here [8220 Second, New Center area].”
She said 10,000 petition signatures have been turned in during the last week alone, in the wake of a Jan. 2 rally held at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. She said Michigan Forward and its allies will announce the date they will be traveling to Lansing to present the petitions to the State Board of Canvassers, to allow participation by supporters.
PA4 IS APARTHEID!
Henry cautioned that all petition circulators MUST be REGISTERED VOTERS 18 YEARS OF AGE AND OLDER. She said there has been some confusion about that matter and they have had to toss out some petitions. But she called on those younger than 18 to help out by coming to the AFSCME office to participate in verifying petition signatures, matching them up with voter rolls.
“February is Black History Month, and we are asking everyone to send us notices of Black History events, either to obtain petitions themselves or to have some of us come out to collect signatures.
Rev. Edward Pinkney (l) at Benton Harbor protest against Snyder and PA4
She noted that NAACP members have been going to DTE centers to collect signatures. The Michigan Forward website at http://michiganforward.org/ also lists dates and times for the Rosa Parks Transportation project, where petitioners gather every day at the Rosa Parks Bus Terminal in downtown Detroit to gather signatures. Many are also riding the buses to do so.
Email addresses for Michigan Forward are also listed on their website.
It was reported earlier in the meeting that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder finally met with Michigan’s Black Legislative Caucus regarding a letter sent to him Dec. 7. (Click on Conyers and elected officials letter to Snyder re EM to read letter.) An attendee said that Snyder appeared to be listening to their concerns, but that he concluded by saying that he will be mounting a legal challenge to the Repeal PA4 petition drive once the signatures are turned in,
“There is a strong possibility this will happen,” Henry said. “But attorneys Herb Sanders and Richard Mack of AFSCME, with others, are already preparing for this.”
Henry also reported that Michigan Forward and the NAACP sent a letter to Gov. Snyder and Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon asking for transparency in the emergency manager review process, for details such as when the meetings are happening and what exactly the process involves.
Mayor Hilliard Hampton of Inkster said at the meeting that the process there involved the review team taking officials aside one or two at a time and then drawing up their own reports. The first meeting of the Detroit review team was held in Lansing with little notice, and was closed to the public and the media. Dillon held only a short press conference afterwards.
The Detroit review team seems to be following the same process, having met Jan. 24 separately with City Council President Charles Pugh and President Pro-Tem Gary Brown.
In another venue, Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry launched a vicious pro-Snyder attack on Detroit, calling for Detroit not only to have an emergency manager, but to be folded wholesale into Wayne County. He claimed that none of Detroit’s Black leaders have come forward with a real alternative to Detroit’s economic crisis. He said the city administration has been borrowing money irresponsibly and cannot be trusted to resolve its own issues.
This is not the first time Lessenberry, who lives in West Bloomfield in Oakland County, the wealthiest county in the U.S., has displayed outright racism in his approach to matters involving Detroit. Years ago, he disparaged steelworker Malice Green, who was beaten to death by white police officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn in 1992, as a “crackhead.”
Solution to Detroit's ills
Lessenberry ignored an alternative that has been repeatedly raised by the well-known Moratorium NOW! Coalition Against Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, an alternative which was also brought up at the NAACP meeting and has been the focus of Occupy Wall Street protests across the country.
In the 1930’s, as VOD also has constantly recalled, Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy helped initiate national legislation for a 10-year moratorium on the city’s debt to the banks so that the city could take care of people literally starving to death in Detroit, including city workers, the homeless and the jobless.
Lessenberry cited Dillon’s initial financial report on Detroit, which said the city had paid out $579 million on its debt to the banks in the current year alone, and has a long-term debt of $7 billion. Dillon claimed the total figure was $12 billion including the city’s pension obligations, but neglected to note that the city borrowed $1.5 billion in pension obligation certificates in 2005 to cover the entirety of its outstanding pension obligations for years to come.
Lessenberry also paid no attention to the fact that Detroit and other cities and states across the U.S. are suffering because of U.S. military spending, which gobbles up at least 60 percent of the nation’s revenue.
VOD EDITORIAL COMMENT TO JACK LESSENBERRY: WE NEED LESS OF YOU, IN FACT ZERO OF YOU, THROWN IN OUR FACES BY THE METRO TIMES, WHICH BEGAN AS A PROGRESSIVE NEWSPAPER BUT HAS CLEARLY BECOME, AS ONE OF MY CITY CO-WORKERS USED TO CALL IT, “THE METRO SLIME.”
Aiyana’s aunt LaKrystal Sanders, grandmother Mertilla Jones, and mother Dominika Stanley in front of national Stolen Lives banner listine the names of thousands killed by police; Aiyana’s name is first on the Michigan listing.
Family members from NYC, NC, Minnesota and elsewhere embrace them; Campaign against “Stop and Frisk” police policies introduced in NYC
By Diane Bukowski
Jan. 20, 2011
Arnetta Grable (l), host of the conference, listens as Mertilla Jones describes her family's agony at Aiyana's death and its aftermath.
DETROIT – Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ mother, grandmother and aunt met with families from all over the country whose loved ones have been killed by police on Jan. 14, during a national conference held in Redford, Michigan by several coalitions. It was hosted by Arnetta Grable of the Original Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.
Dominika Stanley, Mertilla Jones, and LaKrystal Sanders were warmly and sorrowfully greeted by the participants, who came from as far away as New York City, Minneapolis and North Carolina. New York participants brought with them documentation that law enforcement has killed at least 323 residents of New York and New Jersey since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 40 of them since 2010, and that 7,000 people are killed nationally by police every year.
Jesse Barber pours libations as family members call out the names of loved ones killed by police; in addition to the Jones family and Grable, attendees included Juanita Young and Danette Chaviz of NYC (at left)
The Stolen Lives project, sponsored by the October 22 Coalition Against Police Brutaliey, has documented the deaths of over 2,000 people nationally at the hands of police, listed by state on a banner displayed at the meeting.
Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ name is first on the list of those killed in Michigan. Everyone at the conference table was in tears as Aiyana’s family members described Aiyana’s killing by Detroit police at the age of 7 on May 16, 2010, and the events since then. (Video below shows Aiyana’s induction into the Stolen Lives list in New York City in July, 2010, as family member speaks by phone.)
Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones said her daughter LaKrystal convinced her to join with others in organizing against police killings. She recalled how Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley burst into her home after an incendiary grenade was thrown through the window, seconds before he shot Aiyana to death.
Killer cop Joseph Weekley, still portrayed on website of "The First 48." which was filming as he shot Aiyana to death.
“The look in his eyes said ‘kill,’” Jones recalled. “Then they blamed me for my grandbaby’s death.” Jones said Aiyana, the only daughter of seven children of her son Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley, was “mine.”
“Now they have my son locked up,” Jones continued. “They have continued to harass my family until this day. But I know who I raised—eight children, six boys and two girls, and they are not murderers. I can’t bring Aiyana back, but I can bring my son Charles and his brother Norbert home. The majority of my kids are sons. I have 22 grandchildren, and I am so scared for all of them.”
Charle.s Jones with daughter Aiyana before she was killed by Detroit police
Jones’ next hearing is Thursday, Jan. 26 at 1:30 p.m. in front of 36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes.
Jones said her son Norbert Jones was unjustly convicted on charges of felony murder, and sentenced to life without parole in July, 2010, two months after Aiyana died.
“My children used to have respect for the police, but no more,” Jones said. “Every time we turn around, they are harassing us. The Warren police took my daughter Krystal’s car. Why should we be put off the courthouse grounds after Charles’ hearings before we can even talk to his attorney, and why aren’t they allowing all of his family into the hearings?”
Jones said the family who moved into the flat where they had lived during the raid named their newborn daughter “Aiyana” after her granddaughter.
Family members gather in honor of men killed by Officer Eugene Brown: Rodrick Carrington, LaMar Grable, and Darren Miller outside Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office after she once again refused to charge Brown in the deaths, despite an internal police report recommending that he be charged.
Grable and others said they too had experienced constant harassment and retaliation by the police and government forces when they protested the murders of their loved ones.
Detroit cop Eugene Brown killed (l to r) Rodrick Carrington, Lamar Grable, and Darren Miller
Grable, who is a co-founder of the Detroit Coalition, fought a 10-year battle for justice after her son Lamar Grable, 21, was shot eight times to death by three-time killer Officer Eugene Brown on Sept. 21, 1996.
During that time, she said her two other children faced constant stops by the police. Her son Aaron Grable is currently incarcerated after an illegal stop and search by Detroit police, as is the son of Cornell Squires, another Detroit Coalition member. Squires and his son were victimized by former Detroit Officer Robert Feld and William “Robocop” Melendez, both of them the subjects of repeated lawsuits and brutality charges..
‘They always blame the victim,” Grable said. She finally won her day in court against Brown, where world-famed forensic pathologist Werner Spitz testified Lamar had been executed as he lay on the ground. Brown admitted on the stand that it “was possible” he had shot Lamar in the chest on the ground after shooting him in the back and turning him over. His admission led the Michigan appeals and Supreme Courts to deny the City of Detroit’s appeal of a $4 million jury verdict.
Family members including Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson (center) weep as Danette Chavis, mother of Gregory Chavis (2nd from right), speaks.
Other family members were present to plan a continuing offensive against what they said is a national epidemic of police murders and brutality.
They included Juanita Young, of New York City, who assured Aiyana’s relatives that they will find comfort and support working with other victimized families.
“”We have turned the police brutality coalition into an underground railroad for victims of the police,” Young told the Jones family. “They’re going after my children to get at me… But they are not going to make me shut up,” she said earlier in an article published at http://rwor.org/a/174/juanita_young-en.html in the newspaper Revolution.
Malcolm Ferguson
Young’s son Malcolm Ferguson was shot and killed by New York plainclothes police officer Louis Rivera on March 1, 2000. She too fought a long battle in court, with a jury finally awarding her a $10.5 million verdict in 2007. The New York Supreme Court of Appeals reduced the judgment to $2.7 million in 2010.
Young herself was brutalized and arrested by police in 2006. A jury later acquitted her of charges in that case, but on August 8, 2009, NYPD officers raided her home again.
“Over a dozen plainclothes police officers broke down the door, attacking Juanita’s oldest son, James (JJ) Ferguson,” Alice Woodward wrote in the Revolution article.
Layla, a North Carolina organizer, provides musical background for libation ceremony
“They pulled down JJ’s pants, knocked him to the ground and turned him over face down on the pavement. They pushed their knees into JJ’s neck and back, choked him, punched him, handcuffed him and pepper-sprayed him. JJ was vomiting and had several bumps on his head as he was put into the police car. Police also sexually assaulted Juanita Young’s oldest daughter, Saran, while Saran held her baby in her arms. They arrested seven people including two of Juanita Young’s daughters. JJ Ferguson was charged with several serious charges, the six others were given a summons for disorderly conduct.”
Nicholas Heyward, Sr. at right
Nicholas Heyward, Sr., also of New York, told the heart-rending story of his 13-year-old son Nicholas Hayward, Jr.’s killing by New York housing officer Brian George, also known as “Robocop,” on Sept. 27, 1994.
His child was playing “cops and robbers” with others in the Gowanus Houses park in Brooklyn, using a toy gun with a bright red tip that did not look like a real gun. George shot him in mid-sentence as he said, “We’re only playing, we’re only play. . . .” according to witnesses’ accounts. George was never charged.
Nicholas Heyward, Jr., shot to death by NYPD police at age of 13 in 1994
Afterwards, Heyward, Sr. was repeatedly picked out by cops, harassed and arrested for things like walking his dogs without a leash.
“My fight in the struggle for justice continues because we continue to see authorities exonerate brutal, murdering cops no matter how clear the evidence of their crime,” Heyward said in an account of the case published in the book Stolen Lives, “Because we bury too many of our children while the cops who murder them walk free. Because the mainstream media continues to cover up and help justify police assaults on the people.”
The park where Nicholas, Jr. was killed has been re-named “Nicholas Nequan Heyward, Jr. Park,” and has become a center for community organizing against police brutality, with annual events on October 22, and a mural depicting the child. A foundation established in his name gives out basketball scholarships every summer, has a mentoring program and sponsors numerous other events. Its website is at http://www.nicholasheywardmemorialfoundation.org/
Memorial mural for Nicholas Heyward, Jr.
Jesse Barber of Greensboro, North Carolina, attended the national conference, still fighting against police brutality on behalf of her son Gilbert Barber, killed at the age of 22 by Guilford [“Guilty”] County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Gordy in 2001, and others.
“Our people have always been killed by police,” Barber said.
Bilbert Barber's photo is held by his parents Calvert Stewart and Jesse Barber (Photo: The Campus Echo)
An account of what happened, “Crying Murder,” was published by “The Campus Echo.”. According to the article, Barber had a one-car accident, then was pepper-sprayed and shot three times by Gordy, who claimed he approached him in a threatening manner and shot at him, a startling similarity to Brown’s claims in the Grable killing. Evidence at the Brown civil trial showed that Brown himself likely shot twice into his bulletproof vest while not wearing it.
The family’s attorney told the Campus Echo that Barber was dragged into a nearby church, where pools of blood and five of Barber’s teeth were found, some still attached to gum tissue. The church furniture was covered with blood. Police claimed Barber knocked his own teeth out with a wooden collection plate, but a dental forensic specialist testified that was “highly unlikely.” For more information, go to http://web.nccu.edu/campus/echo/archive10-0102/c-murder.html
Gregory Chavis
Danette Chavis, mother of Gregory Chavis. killed by the NYPD on October 9, 2004, was one of the most outspoken members of the New York delegation during the meeting of Jan. 14. The entire conference took place over three days, Jan. 13-Jan. 25, 2012.
“My son Gregory was shot in the back by a police officer; and the police prevented his friends from carrying him to the hospital, which was sitting across the street from where he was shot,” Danette Chavis earlier told Revolution newspaper. “I am angry. I am tired of fighting them, but something keeps me going.”
Ms. Chavis warned the assembly that there is a movement to pass legislation to make it illegal for people to videotape police officers in action. Twelve states have so far passed laws against this, although several have been overturned by federal circuit courts of appeals. However, the move to make this illegal on a federal level has not ceased. See http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/08/opinion/la-oe-turley-video-20111108
Imam Luqman Abdullah speaks on behalf of Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) in 2008
In a recorded statement, she told members of the New York Coalition that people from every police precinct in the country who have experienced killings and brutality at the hands of police must address U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to demand justice. To date, however, Holder has not done so. In 2010, the USDOJ exonerated the FBI and Detroit police in the assassination of Detroit’s Imam Luqman Abdullah.
A New York Oct. 22 Coalition member addressed the assembly about the group’s latest venture, “STOP STOP AND FRISK,” in a conference call. He said that in the last two years, NYPD has recorded 250,000 cases where police stopped individuals and searched them.
Detroit cops Michael Parish and Michael Osman, who allegedly initiated policy of "Stop and rape" Black men
“Less than 10 percent of the stops were valid,” he said. “Only two percent resulted in charges being brought. The policy is aided and abetted by NYPD’s policies placing quotas on the number of arrests made by officers to determine who is more ‘efficient.’ Most times people are stopped for no reason, sometimes just for standing in front of their own buildings, and then they get $250 tickets for loitering.”
The spokesman said the coalition has organized occupations outside New York courthouses to protest this policy.
Communities United Against Police Brutality members from Minneapolis
In 2006, two Detroit officers, Michael Osman and Michael Parish, upgraded this policy to abject depravity, stopping dozens of Black men in broad daylight on public streets, stripping them, and penetrating them anally under the guise of drug searches, as well as otherwise sexually abusing them. Their actions fit the state definition of criminal sexual conduct (rape) in the first degree. Such searches are illegal without a court order and must be done by medical personnel.
Osman and Parish never faced charges despite broad publicity (the story was broken by this reporter, who did a series on the cases in The Michigan Citizen, which was followed up by the daily media).
Shockingly, a member of Communities United Against Police Brutality, (CUAPB www.cuapb.org ), from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, said such police rape of Black men is prevalent in Minneapolis to this day. Several members of CUAPB attended the conference.
Sign at San Quentin prison in CA; hunger strike began at Pelicay Bay prison
October 22nd Coalition organizer Scott Trent, of North Carolina, addressed the meeting on the connection of the epidemic of police brutality with the mass incarceration rate in the United States, which has 2.5 million people in prison, the largest per capita rate of any country in the world. He recalled the 2010 Georgia prisoners’ strike, where thousands of prisoners across the state refused to leave their cells for weeks, facing extreme retaliation including beatings and charges. Last year, prisoners across California conducted weeks-long hunger strikes to protest the brutal conditions of their solitary confinements, many of which have lasted for decades.
(To read proposed action statement brought by Trent to the meeting, click on Oct. 22 proposed statement.)
Some of conference participants pose for group photo at end of Jan. 14 session
Former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney
By Cynthia McKinney
January 21, 2012 10:59 AM
Most people know about being “Sleepless in Seattle.” Well, I am “snowed in in Seattle!” But even six inches of snow in Seattle don’t keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:
At a time when U.S.-Iran tensions are the highest I have experienced in my lifetime, Danger Room of wired.com breaks a news story on 19 January 2012 that a new United States commando special operations team is operating near Iran. Meanwhile, a columnist in Lebanon’s “The Daily Star” newspaper writes that Syria increasingly looks like Libya. And at the same time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admits in a press conference that he believes that the annual number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military could number as high as 19,000. This is from the Administration that shamefully accused the Libyan Jamahiriya military of issuing Viagra to its soldiers and using rape as a weapon.
U.S. troops currently on ground in Libya (Photo: Libya Free Press)
And finally, coming hot on the heels of an Algeria-ISP report that that the Obama Administration offered to reconstitute the Libyan military, forming desert troops, special forces, and a Libyan air force, tunisiefocus.com reports that U.S. troops are already in Libya, in Brega, Ras Lanouf, and Sirte, in order to secure Libyan oil for western markets at a very cheap price.
Libyan troops at Mitiga Air Base on 41st anniversary of US withdrawal, prior to the current US/NATO war on Libya
Last week, I reported on numerous reports that I had read indicating that U.S. troops were on the island of Malta waiting for the word to deploy to Libya. If the above reports are correct, then it would appear that that word has been given. Interestingly, the reports of U.S. troops were reported in several African, Libyan, and Russian online sites, yet there was no response from either Malta or the U.S. In fact, the Russian site za-afriku.ru as late as 19 January 2012 wrote, “The administration of the United States still has not refuted a lot of messages in various MEDIA for the transfer of 12000 troops on Malta as a preliminary step to the further redeployment in Libya in order to control the deteriorating situation in the country.” Continue reading →
Congress is on the verge of handing sweeping, unprecedented control over how we use the Internet over to a bunch of major corporations, with devastating consequences for our ability to communicate freely and without fear of reprisal.
Pending federal legislation would force nearly every domestic website to engage in a tremendous degree of self-censorship to ensure it won’t be subject to serious legal and financial liability. Any website featuring user-generated content—think YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, not to mention the user comment sections of blogs, news sites, and commercial/retail sites like Amazon—would be forced to scrutinize every last post to ensure that none contain links to vaguely-defined, so-called foreign “rogue” sites that may fall afoul of US copyright law.
The unjustifiable repercussions of self-censorship, for both content producers and content consumers, strikes at the root of ColorOfChange’s purpose—to amplify those voices historically marginalized by the powers that be. Black Americans’ effective and powerful history of organizing—and our victories in gaining freedoms, rights and respect—has always been dependent on our ability to use the latest technology to share information and communicate with each other. Today, maintaining an open Internet is critical to protecting and building on the progress we’ve made—our ability to compete on a level playing field and have our voices heard on the Internet is unmatched in any other media platform.
This over-broad Internet policing scheme elevates corporate interests over freedom of expression, and is an immediate threat to Black folks’ full participation in civic, social, and cultural life. Please join us in urging Congress to block any bill that suppresses our voices online:
BUILD FEB. 4 EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TO STOP U.S. WAR AGAINST IRAN: NO WAR! NO SANCTIONS! NO INTERVENTION! NO ASSASSINATIONS!
A broad spectrum of U.S.-based anti-imperialist and anti-war organizations, including the IAC, agreed on a Jan. 17 conference call to hold coordinated protests across the country on Saturday, Feb. 4. The demands will be: “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations against Iran.”
The ad-hoc group that took part in the call decided that although there are only two weeks to organize, it will invite anti-war forces around the world to join in to make this emergency protest a global day of action.
U.S. President Barack Obama; 60 percent of U.S. budget goes to Pentagon
All agreed on the need to stop U.S. imperialism and/or Israel from launching a military attack on Iran. There was also a consensus that the new sanctions President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec. 31 — with the goal of breaking the Iranian central bank — were themselves an act of war aimed at the Iranian people. The political activists on the call raised the danger of a wider war should fighting break out in or around Iran.
While the organizations involved had varied assessments of the Iranian government, they all saw any intervention from U.S. imperialism in the Southwest Asian country as a threat to the entire region and to peace. Some of the people on the call who are originally from Iran and who were in touch with family and friends there conveyed the Iranian people’s anger at the recent assassination of a young scientist.
There was agreement to make “no assassinations” one of the demands to show solidarity with the Iranian population as well as to condemn the U.S. and its allies for criminal activities against Iran and its people.
As of Jan. 19, the organizations that called the actions or endorsed later included:
United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC), the International Action Center (IAC), SI! Solidarity with Iran, Refugee Apostolic Catholic Church, Workers World Party, World Can’t Wait, American Iranian Friendship Committee, ANSWER Coalition, Antiwar.com, Peace of the Action, ComeHomeAmerica.us, St. Pete for Peace, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality-Virginia, WESPAC Foundation, Peace Action Maine, Occupy Myrtle Beach, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, Twin Cities Peace Campaign and Bail Out the People Movement (BOPM).
Individual endorsers include authors David Swanson, “When the World Outlawed War,” and Phil Wilayto, “In Defense of Iran: Notes from a U.S. Peace Delegation’s Journey through the Islamic Republic”; and U.N. Human Rights Award winner Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general.
The list is expected to grow steadily as word spreads. Right now people can follow developments on the Facebook link: No War On Iran: National Day of Action Feb 4,http://www.facebook.com/events/214341975322807/.
