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

 More than 300 people were arrested across the United States on Thursday in a series of protests marking the two months since the start of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In New York, which was again the focus of the now global movement, tens of thousands of protesters, including thousands of union members, walked across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge in a show of solidarity. 

Published: November 17

NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street protesters clogged streets and tied up traffic around the U.S. on Thursday to mark two months since the movement’s birth and signal they aren’t ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police. Hundreds of people were arrested, most of them in New York.

The demonstrations — which took place in cities including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Boston, Washington and Portland, Ore. — were for the most part peaceful. Most of the arrests were for blocking streets, and the traffic disruptions were brief.

After a judge ruled that Occupy protesters do not have a right to camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park, demonstrators returned there. Early Tuesday, police cleared the encampment at the park.

 

Union members from SEIU and Good Jobs LA march with Occupy LA through California Plaza on the morning of November 17, 2011 N17

Chanting “All day, all week, shut down Wall Street,” more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections. Helmeted police officers broke up some of the gatherings, and operations at the stock market were not disrupted.

As darkness fell, a coalition of unions and progressive groups joined Occupy demonstrators in staging rallies at landmark bridges in several U.S. cities to protest joblessness.

In New York, a crowd of several thousand people, led by banner-carrying members of the Service Employees International Union, jammed Manhattan’s Foley Square and then marched peacefully across the Brooklyn Bridge on a pedestrian promenade.

 

Police strike protesters with batons on live TV. After eight UC Berkeley students protesting tuition hikes chained themselves together on a narrow ledge atop the University’s historic Wheeler Hall, authorities decided they’d gone too far. As hundreds of the students’ supporters rallied and chanted on the building’s steps, police arrived to break up the demonstration and things got ugly.

As they walked, a powerful light projected the slogan “We are the 99 percent” — a reference to the Americans who aren’t super-rich — on the side of a nearby skyscraper. Police officers dressed in wind breakers, rather than riot gear, arrested at least two dozen people who walked out onto the bridges’ roadway but otherwise let the marchers pass without incident.

Several weeks ago, an attempt to march across the bridge drew the first significant international attention to the Occupy movement as more than 700 people were arrested.

 

On November 17 2011, on conjunction with the worldwide Occupy Everything Day, the Occupy St. Louis protesters took over the abandoned city’s municipal courts building after being evicted from Kiener Plaza the week before.

Thursday’s protests came two days after police raided and demolished the encampment at lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park that had served as headquarters of the Occupy movement and as demonstrators and union allies tried to regain their momentum.

“This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night,” said demonstrator Paul Knick, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J. “It seems like there’s a concerted effort to stop the movement, and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.” 

At least 300 people were arrested in New York. Some were bloodied during the arrests. One man was taken into custody for throwing liquid, possibly vinegar, into the faces of several police officers, authorities said. Many demonstrators were carrying vinegar as an antidote for pepper spray.

A police officer, Matthew Walters, needed 20 stitches on his hand after he was hit with a piece of thrown glass, police said. 

In Los Angeles, about 500 sympathizers marched downtown between the Bank of America tower and Wells Fargo Plaza, chanting, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” More than two dozen people were arrested.

Police arrested 21 demonstrators in Las Vegas, and 20 were led away in plastic handcuffs in Portland, Ore., for sitting down on a bridge. At least a dozen were arrested in St. Louis in the evening after they sat down cross-legged and locked arms in an attempt to block a bridge over the Mississippi River. More were handcuffed for blocking bridges in Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

 

OCCUPY CHICAGO NOV. 17

In Chicago, hundreds of protesters organized by labor and community groups marched toward the Chicago River. They stopped at the river bridge and shut it down to rush-hour traffic. Police officers scrambled to divert cars and pedestrians. People watched the protests from office windows and bus stops.

In Seattle, hundreds of Occupy Seattle and labor demonstrators shut down the University Bridge as part of a national day of action demanding jobs. Traffic was snarled around Seattle’s University District as two rallies marched toward the bridge.

 

OCCUPY SEATTLE

After a judge ruled that Occupy protesters do not have a right to camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park, demonstrators returned there. Early Tuesday, police cleared the encampment at the park.

Several of the demonstrations coincided with an event planned months earlier by a coalition of unions and liberal groups, including Moveon.org and the SEIU, in which out-of-work people walked over bridges in several cities to protest high unemployment.

The street demonstrations also marked two months since the Occupy movement sprang to life in New York on Sept. 17. They were planned well before police raided a number of encampments over the past few days but were seen by some activists as a way to demonstrate their resolve in the wake of the crackdown.

 

OCCOPY LAS VEGAS PROTESTERS MARCHED ON FEDERAL BUILDING, INTERRUPTED CNN BROADCAST WITH CHANTS; 21 ARRESTED

thursday’s demonstrations around Wall Street brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt, but police were largely effective at keeping the protests confined to just a few blocks. Officers allowed Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said police had been expecting as many as 10,000 protesters based on what activists had been saying online. But he said there had been “minimal disruption.”

 

Occupy Boston was joined by trade unions in a march through Downtown and the North End / Waterfront to the Charlestown Bridge.

“Most protesters have, in all fairness, acted responsibly,” he said after visiting an injured police officer in the hospital.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers confiscated metal devices that some demonstrators had apparently planned to use to lock themselves into the entrances to Wall Street businesses.

The demonstration that drew thousands of people to Foley Square in the evening was a rarity in the Occupy movement: Union organizers obtained a permit from the city, and speakers were allowed to use a sound system.

 

VOD on Occupy Detroit: The questionable character of OD came out when they called on Detroit police to join them and then bragged about it. Earlier, they refused requests from union activists and others to occupy Detroit’s Water Board Building as a racist federal takeover of the country’s fourth largest water and sewerage system takes place, and also called for regionalization of Detroit’s transit system in this 86 percent African-American city. On Nov. 18, when their extended permit expired, they politely pulled up their tents as Mayor Dave Bing and other government officials lit the city’s Christmas tree a few blocks from their encampment. (VOD: as OWS says: SHAME!)

Among the demonstrators arrested in New York was a retired Philadelphia police captain, Ray Lewis, who was taken into custody in his dress uniform. Others included actor and director Andre Gregory, who said he hoped the movement would lead to national action on economic injustice.

“It’s a possible beginning of something positive,” he said.

Some onlookers applauded the demonstrators from open windows. Others yelled, “Get a job!”

“I don’t understand their logic,” said Adam Lieberman, as he struggled to navigate police barricades on his way to work at JPMorgan Chase. “When you go into business, you go into business to make as much money as you can. And that’s what banks do. They’re trying to make a profit.”

Gene Williams, a bond trader, joked that he was “one of the bad guys” but said he empathized with the demonstrators: “The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor, and it’s getting wider.”

The confrontations followed early morning arrests in other cities. In Dallas, police evicted dozens of protesters near City Hall, citing health and safety reasons. Eighteen protesters were arrested. Two demonstrators were arrested and about 20 tents removed at the University of California, Berkeley.

City officials and demonstrators were trying to decide their next step in Philadelphia, where about 100 protesters were under orders to clear out to make way for a long-planned $50 million plaza renovation at City Hall. Union leaders pressed the demonstrators to leave, saying construction jobs were stake.

Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Jennifer Peltz, Meghan Barr in New York contributed to this story. 

Nov. 17, 2011: To watch today’s events as they unfold during OWS’ Day of Action v. Austerity, especially in New York, where demonstratrors are marching on the New York Stock Exchange and planning to occupy the subways as well, click  on:

http://readersupportednews.org/video/4-video/7744-occupy-wall-street-livestream

THIS LINK WILL BE INCLUDED IN VOD LINKS TO THE RIGHT. IT CAN BE ACCESSED AT ANY TIME, IT IS ONGOING LIVESTREAM OF OWS EVENTS.

Occupy Detroit demanded tax the rich for good DDOT transit during march Oct. 28, 2011

 (VOD ed.: AFSCME Council 25 is also calling public workers and the community to participate at 4:30 p.m. in a march outside CAYMC vs. takeover of Water Department, Bing’s cuts –see next two posts.)

From the Direct Action Committee, Occupy Detroit

In response to a nationwide call from Occupy Wall St. to protest austerity cuts: A teach-in and rally at Grand Circus Park at 3pm followed by a march to the Coleman A. Young Center  at 4pm.

Dear Friends of Occupy Detroit,

Thursday, November 17 is a National Day of Action to Resist Austerity.

Austerity means more sacrifices from the 99% so that the 1% can impose its political and economic agenda. Here in Detroit we would like to focus on opposing the cuts to public services and the recently passed Emergency Manager bill. That law hijacks the democratic rights of voters, public sector workers and the entire community. This is done in the name of erasing a deficit. But why is there a deficit?

Thousands from Occupy Detroit marched down Woodward to establish first camp in October

While speculation continues, the economy is drowning us in debt, foreclosing on our homes, eliminating our jobs and closing our schools and hospitals. The war machine demands to be fed. This is the logic of austerity — squeezing money from the meager services that remain and funneling it into armies and prisons and more tax breaks for the wealthy.

As we can see in the case of the takeover of the Detroit Public Schools, Emergency Managers collect large salaries while cutting the wages and benefits of public school workers. Teachers have been moved around as if they are cards in a deck. With little data to back up the claims, charter schools are extolled while public schools are closed. The resulting chaos has forced many parents to take their children out of the public schools. And, not surprisingly, the Detroit public school debt has risen and the banks demand payment. We see something wrong with this picture.

Rick-tator Snyder and Mayor Dave Bing conspired to establish PA 4, Bing now threatening to implement it in Detroit

Emergency Managers are put in place by the governor, not the people. By taking away any semblance of a democratic process, the law undermines our ability act in our own best interests. Emergency Managers act in the interests of the wealthy, bleeding the public sector to cover debts we’re not responsible for. The fact that Emergency Managers have thus far only been appointed to predominantly African-American cities and school districts highlights the structural racism of these power grabs. We have the capacity to make our own decisions; we have the strength to stand together. An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

Politicians and the media demonize teachers, office workers and those who need social services. We all need public services—libraries, schools, youth and senior centers, parks and a myriad infrastructural services. We will not stand by while children go hungry, while families are refused access to water and heat, while already inadequate transportation undergoes another round of cuts. We say no to cuts that destroy the social fabric of our community! We are for jobs and the welfare of the entire community!

We ask you to join Occupy Detroit in a rally and march against austerity on Thursday, November 17. We will march against cutbacks demanded of city, county and state workers. We march against the Emergency Manager legislation. We demand that our society prioritize human rights–not the maximization of corporate profit.

Join us on November 17 for a 3PM rally in Grand Circus Park. At 4PM we will march to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center at the foot of Woodward. Our route will pass the Rosa Parks Bus Center (Bagley & Cass) and then march by the Wayne County offices in the Guardian Building on Griswold before reaching the municipal center at 4:30PM. We will rally there from 4:30-5:30PM.

No to Cuts! No to Austerity! No to Emergency Managers!

Marie Thornton, former Detroit school board member who fought emergency managers, school closings, and costly private contracts for eight years, helps lead first Occupy Detroit action; 87 percent of Detroit Public Schools state aid goes to pay debt.

AFSCME Local 2920 President Thomas B. Johnson II address union leaders at Nov. 10, 2011 press conference opposing Judge Sean Cox’s water department takeover

• AFSCME Co. 25 files motion to intervene, bar contract changes
• City union leaders join to support AFSCME
• Rally set for Thurs. Nov. 17, 4:30 p.m. at CAYMC 

By Diane Bukowski

Nov. 14, 2011 

DETROIT – In the wake of a mass press conference held by city union leaders Nov. 10, Michigan AFSCME Council 25 on Nov. 14 filed a motion to intervene in the federal lawsuit against the water department and to bar massive changes to AFSCME’s contract with the city. 

The union has also called on union members, the community, and Occupy Detroit to rally Thurs. Nov.17 at 4:30 p.m. outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center,then march to the Guardian Building, where embattled Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano’s offices are located. 

George W. Bush appointed Cox to federal bench

 On Nov. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox issued a broad order attacking the rights of workers, Detroit residents, and the City Council with respect to the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD) under union contracts and the City Charter.  He also barred actions brought with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission and state courts challenging his ruling. 

(Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/10/cox-axes-detroiters-control-over-water-department/ for complete details.) 

During the press conference, union leaders likened Cox to a slavemaster. 

Cox and Detroit

“Cox is treating Detroit like it’s a slave plantation he gets to run,” said Attorney George Washington. Susan Glaser, president of the Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers Association (SAAA), compared his naming of a “Special Master” to the appointment of a plantation overseer. 

The motion, filed by Attorney Herbert Sanders of the Sanders Law Firm, contends that Cox’s Nov. 4 order violates the contracts and takings clauses of the U.S. Constitution. It also demands that Cox permanently bar “the modification, amendment, or termination of the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement.” 

(Click on Cox Co 25 motion to intervene 11 14 11 to read entire motion.)

It notes that AFSCME was never contacted by Cox regarding his changes to its contract. 

It says, “None of the recommended changes to the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement are even remotely connected to enforcement of the Clean Water Act.” The  federal lawsuit against DWSD, #77-71100,  under which Cox acted, was filed in 1977, specifically to address violations of that Act.

Atty. George Washington, Local 207 officers John RIehl and Mike Mulholland announce lawsuit against Synagro contract Jan. 26, 2099

“We are standing in defense of our city workers, members, and residents,” John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207, which represents 1,000 DWSD workers, said Nov. 10. “Detroit deserves better treatment of its workers and residents.”  (Click on Riehl declaration  to read Riehl’s affidavit filed in Cox’a court.) 

Riehl noted, “Our union was highly instrumental in exposing and defeating the Synagro contract, brought by the Kwame Kilpatrick administration. Judge Cox’s order threatens to reinstate the same corruption that existed then.” 

The U.S. Justice Department has brought extensive charges against Kilpatrick, former Water Department Director Victor Mercado, Kilpatrick aides, City Council member Monica Conyers and city council aides, among others, related to the Synagro contract. 

BOWC chair James Fausone, representing Wayne County

Cox’s order largely transfers contracting and rate setting powers to the seven-member Detroit Board of Water Commissioners (BOWC). It is now dominated by three suburban commissioners because they have veto power on contract and rate votes, which require a supermajority. Many, like BOWC chair James Fausone, representing Wayne County, have ties to water contractors. 

The entire Wayne County administration under Ficano is also now under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department largely related to allegedly corrupt contracting practices. 

Riehl said the city administration has caused many problems with Clean Water Act compliance by understaffing the water department. 

“There is a brain and experience drain because of attacks on pension rights,” he explained. “Every week, 10 0r more DWSD workers retire before more attacks come. The real shortages started under Kilpatrick and [former Water Department director Victor] Mercado with lay-offs and privatization.” 

Former DWSD director Victor Mercado and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, both under federal indictment

Kilpatrick laid off hundreds of DWSD workers in 2006 after Local 207 voted against a take-back contract. 

The Council 25 motion contends among other declarations, “The collective bargaining agreement . . . encourages management to maintain a full staff of regular workers capable of running the plant on a daily basis. Daily operations and maintenance are subjected to better quality control and greater collective knowledge and skills when this work is done in-house.”

 Thomas B. Johnson II is president of AFSCME Local 2920, which represents clerical and other city-wide classifications at DWSD. 

Local 2920 Pres. Thomas B. Johnson II

“There is too much management and too many consultants in the Water Department, who have carte blanche to do whatever they want to do,” he said. “The Water Department has never been under a deficit so there has been no reason to lay-off our workers.” 

Cox’s order bars city workers from other departments from using their seniority rights to bump into DWSD if they are laid off, as Mayor Bing is threatening. It thus represents an attack on ALL city workers, not just those at DWSD, Johnson agreed. 

“Cox is trying to bust our unions,” Dempsey Addison, president of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE). “We are not going to stand for this. Nobody has absolute power, not even a judge.” 

APTE Pres. Dempsey Addison at first Occupy Detroit march

Washington said that if Cox denies the union’s motion to intervene, “We will be in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 24 hours.” 

Cox held a “status conference” on the AFSCME motion Nov. 14. Further details were not available at press time.

Detroit’s City Council earlier voted to hire its own attorney to advise it on Cox’s order, which overrules many of its powers, but to date has filed no action. Cox appointed Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh and President Pro-Tem Gary Brown to a four-member committee which issued a “Committee Plan” to him Nov. 2 recommending many of the changes he ordered. 

SEAN COX CHAIRS U-M LAW SCHOOL MEETING OF RIGHT-WING FEDERALIST SOCIETY (video below)

Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/14/sean-cox-right-wing-affiliations/ for further info on the Judge.

The Federalist Society’s Student Division presented this speech and commentary at the 2008 Annual Student Symposium on March 8, 2008.

Speech and Commentary: An Originalist Judge and the Media

–Justice Stephen Markman, Michigan Supreme Court
–Prof. Richard Primus, University of Michigan Law School
–Mr. Pete Williams, NBC News
–Moderator: Judge Sean Cox, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Detroit’s Mayor Wants Union Pay Cuts, Layoffs: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Mayor Bing uses shadowy E & Y report to demand city cutbacks

CUT DEBT TO THE BANKS, NOT WORKERS AND SERVICES!

 By Diane Bukowski 

November 14, 2011

Ernst & Young Detroit building towers over Campus Martius

DETROIT – Ernst & Young, author of the secret report on Detroit’s finances that Mayor Dave Bing is brandishing like a cudgel over the heads of workers and residents, faces lawsuits by the states of New York and New Jersey for actively helping Lehman Brothers cook their books over a seven year period. 

Lehman, worth $600 billion, collapsed in 2008 in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. Its collapse was a key factor in the Wall Street’s subprime mortgage meltdown.

Despite Ernst & Young’s reputation, Bing is demanding heavy concessions from city workers and residents, after meeting in an illegal secret session with the entire City Council Oct. 26 to discuss the firm’s report. He plans to address the city as a whole about city finances Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Northwest Activities Center.

Mayor Dave Bing listens approvingly to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano discussing cutbacks during interview at 2009 Mackinac Island conference

Bing met with leaders of the city’s 40 plus union s Nov. 8 and gave them a two week deadline to comply with his demands.

Leamon Wilson, president of Local 312 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said Bing specifically refused to give union leaders at the meeting the Ernst & Young report.

“He said the city will be broke by late April and he wants to cut $64 million,” Wilson reported. “He wants to eliminate furlough days and instead institute a 10 percent pay cut, replace overtime with straight time, get rid of the pension multiplier, totally privatize maintenance at DDOT, and lay-off 1000 workers. He ended the meeting with only four questions from us. He also said he doesn’t want to be the city’s emergency manager, that he was elected to be Mayor.”

City workers demand no attacks on pensions

Regarding Bing’s stance on becoming Detroit’s EM, Nolan Finley of the Detroit News commented Nov. 13, “The emergency manager law allows for public officials to ask for a consent agreement from the state that bestows on them certain powers of a state-appointed manager, without surrendering local control. That includes the ability to revise contracts to reduce budget-busting pension and health care obligations.”

Bing additionally demanded that city workers pay 30 percent of the cost of their health care, up 10 percent, saying the cuts in total would result in $118 million annually in savings. (Click on BINGS-UNION-DISCUSSION-POINTS[1] for copy of document Bing gave to the union leaders.)

Union leaders left the meeting enraged. 

AFSCME Co. 25 President Al Garrett (r), Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams (center)

Al Garrett, president of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, said, “Cuts and more cuts and more cuts, with little regret for the families of those who work for the city!  At the end of the day he is saying your jobs still won’t be safe, but while you’re waiting to become unemployed, you’re going to make less, pay more for your health care, and decimate whatever pensions you’re going to get, and that’s life in Detroit.” 

The Oct. 26 City Council agenda says the closed session on the Ernst & Young report was held to “discuss a privileged and confidential memo submitted by the Law Department dated October 21, 2011 entitled Report by Ernst & Young, LLP, Concerning the City of Detroit’s Cash Flow Analysis in the General Fund Area Beginning May 1, 2011 through August 26, 2011 as it Relates to the Emergency Financial Manager Legislation Otherwise Known as ‘The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act.’” 

Council Pres. Pro-tem Gary Brown, Member Saunteel Jenkins, Pres. Charles Pugh; all have endorsed worker cuts

On the same day, the Council held another closed session to discuss another “privileged and confidential” matter: “The Necessity of Emergency Procurement for the Detroit Public Lighting Department for the Installation of New Lighting and Repair of the Grid System.” It later voted 5-4 for a three-quarter million dollar contract with DTE to fix 500 street lights out of 12,000 that are out. 

The Council has also scheduled a  Nov. 16 closed session  “to discuss privileged and confidential legal opinions submitted by RAD and the Law Department entitled (1) Legal Rationale for Proposed Amendment of the Privatization Ordinance dated October 26, 2011; (2) City of Detroit Privatization Ordinance dated October 3, 2011; and (3) Documents Supporting the Proposed Ordinance to Amend Article V, Chapter 18 of the 1984 Detroit City Code, Finance and Taxation, Purchased and Supplies, Division 8, Privatization of Certain City Services, commonly known as the “Privatization Ordinance.”

Closed sessions of bodies like the City Council, by state statute, are narrowly limited to discussions of matters like lawsuits. 

All Council members were contacted for their response on whether they voted for the secret session on the Ernst & Young report, whether they believed it was legal, and their stance on Bing’s demands to the unions. No council members had responded by press time.

Ernst & Young offices in New York

The Voice of Detroit and the Detroit Free Press have filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the Ernst & Young report, which cost $1.7 million of taxpayer funds, with the city’s Law Department.

VOD also contacted Ernst & Young’s media director Charles Perkins for comment on the New York and New Jersey lawsuits, with no response before press time.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed that state’s suit against Ernst & Young in December, 2010.

WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell gestures next to Ernst & Young CEO and chairman James S. Turley during a session untitled "What Is the New Economic Reality?" on the opening day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting on January 26, 2011 in Davos. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI)

In a release, he said Ernst & Young engaged in accounting fraud for seven years, explicitly approving the surreptitious removal of tens of billions of dollars in liabilities from Lehman’s balance sheet, transferring it temporarily to overseas banks, in order to deceive the public and the market about the company’s true financial condition.

 “This practice was a house-of-cards business model designed to hide billions in liabilities in the years before Lehman collapsed,” Cuomo said in a release. “Just as troubling, a global accounting firm, tasked with auditing Lehman’s financial statements, helped hide this crucial information from the investing public. Our lawsuit seeks to recover the fees collected by Ernst & Young while it was supposed to be using accountable, honest measures to protect the public.”  

(Click on  http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2010/dec/dec21a_10.html for copy of full statement. Click on www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2010/dec/ErnstYoungComplaint.pdf. for copy of lawsuit.)

Ernst & Young London headquarters

The Wall Street Journal reported in October, 2010 that the state of New Jersey had re-instituted legal action against the company.

“New Jersey’s investment division, which manages pension- and retirement-plan funds for over 700,000 state workers, including teachers, police and firemen, pumped $385 million into Lehman, purchasing a combination of stock and notes from the investment bank before its collapse,” said the WSJ. It said New Jersey lost $192 million on its Lehman investment.

“[Ernst & Young’s] review reports were false, as E&Y knew or should have known that Lehman’s quarterly financial statements were not prepared in accordance with ‘generally accepted accounting principles,’” the WSJ quotes from the suit. “E&Y had no reasonable basis for issuing its clean audit and review reports.”

Bail Out the People, not the Banks march on Wall Street

One of the Big Four accounting firms, Ernst & Young is headquartered in London, UK,  and has member companies in over 140 countries, with global revenues of $22.9 billion.  In 2010, Forbes magazine ranked it as the ninth largest private company in the U.S.

It has offices all over the world, including one on Wall Street and a spanking brand new green glass building glowering over downtown Detroit.

It is part of the global cabal of banks, mortgage companies and professional services firms which created the current economic crisis. They are now demanding that workers and poor people suffer for their actions.

Crains’ Detroit Business reported from an interview with the City Council’s fiscal analyst Irvin Corley in April of this year that the city cannot borrow more money to shore up its finances.

“The city can’t fund its deficit with borrowed money,” Corley said according to the article. “Detroit’s low credit rating makes short-term borrowing too expensive, long-term borrowing would require state legislation, and the city lacks a revenue stream to pledge as security for another bond sale.” 

In June, Fitch Ratings downgraded Detroit’s Unlimited General Obligation bonds to BB- and its Limited General Obligation Bonds to B+, “outlook negative.” (Click on Fitch Downgrades Detroit bond ratings June 2011 for full report. It states essentially that Detroit’s decline was caused by the national economic crisis, which of course in turn was caused by Lehman Bros., Ernst & Young, Fitch Ratings, et. al.) 

Among other reasons Fitch cited for the downgrade: 

“The debt burden is exceptionally high, offset somewhat by a sizable amount of pension obligation bonds that result in well-funded pension plans.” Detroit borrowed $1.2 BILLION in pension obligation bonds in 2006. How that debt “offsets” the city’s other debt remains to be seen.  

(L to r) Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, Stephen Murphy of Standard & Poors, Joe O'Keefe of Fitch, and Deputy Mayor Saul Green urge City Countil to borrow $1.2 billion in pension bonds in 2006

Ironically, Fitch representative Joe O’Keefe recommended in 2006 that Detroit  borrow that money, despite heavy opposition from some City Council members, who had to be forced to the table by police to make up a quorum. 

At the time, O’Keefe said Fitch rated the city “A,” with a negative outlook if the city did not enact lay-offs and service cutbacks to deal with a $300 million budget deficit.

The Kwame Kilpatrick administration and the City Council borrowed the money. In 2009, the lender, UBS Financial Services,  called in the debt, which would have caused total economic collapse in Detroit.  The lender, among whose agents was former Mayor Dennis Archer, compromised by agreeing that bank trustees would directly receive Detroit’s casino tax revenues and state-revenue sharing funds so that the $1.2 billion debt would be paid before all else. 

Therefore, according to recent reports, half of the city’s vendors, including those who supply parts for its buses, are going unpaid, and the city is threatening payless paydays for its workers. 

According to Detroit’s 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,  the city’s total debt is approximately $7.7 billion, including the $1.2 billion pension obligation certificates. 

 Also according to the 2010 CAFR the city was scheduled to pay a total of $433,691,964 in debt to the banks in 2011. Of that, $216,418,043 was to be in interest alone. THE INTEREST ALONE IS FAR GREATER THAN THE CITY’S DEFICIT!

The U.S. government has bailed out the banks to the tune of trillions of dollars–time for the banks to put their heads on the chopping block, not the workers and people of Detroit.

US  SUPREME COURT TO LOOK AT LIFE IN PRISON FOR JUVENILES 

WASHINGTON November 7, 2011 (AP)

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether juveniles convicted of killing someone may be locked up for life with no chance of parole, a follow-up to last year’s ruling barring such sentences for teenagers whose crimes do not include killing. 

The justices will examine a pair of cases from the South involving young killers who are serving life sentences for crimes they committed when they were 14. 

Kuntrell Jackson

Both cases were brought by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala. The institute said that life without parole for children so young “is cruel and unusual” and violates the Constitution. 

The group says roughly six dozen people in 18 states are under life sentences and ineligible for parole for crimes they committed at 13 or 14. 

Kuntrell Jackson was sentenced to life in prison in Arkansas after the shooting death of a store clerk during an attempted robbery in 1999. Another boy shot the clerk, but because Jackson was present he was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery. 

Evan Miller, foreground, and Colby Smith, wait for a jailer to take them back to the lockup after the teens pleaded not-guilty to capital murder and robbery charges Thursday. Photo by Clyde Stancil 2/2/06

Evan Miller was convicted of capital murder during the course of arson. A neighbor, while doing drugs and drinking with Miller and a 16-year-old boy, attacked Miller. Intoxicated, Miller and his friend beat the man and set fire to his home, killing the 52-year-old man. Miller’s friend testified against him, and got life in prison with the possibility of parole. 

The high court has moved toward judging juveniles less responsible than adults when considering severe sentences. 

The high court ruled out the use of the death penalty for people under 18 in 2005. In May 2010, the court said that teenagers may not be locked up for life without a chance of parole if they haven’t killed anyone. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in both of those decisions. 

“The identical analysis which led to the results in those cases logically compels the conclusion that consigning a 14-year-old to die in prison through a life-without-parole sentence categorically violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments,” Miller’s lawyer Bryan Stevenson said in court papers. The Supreme Court should “make that logical conclusion the law of the land.” 

The court will hear arguments next year. 

The cases are Miller v. Alabama, 10-9646 and Jackson v. Arkansas, 10-9647.

VOD: click on the following links to read Supreme Court questions and state court of appeals decisions in the cases:

Kuntrell Jackson questions and Kuntrell Jackson v State of Arkansas

Evan Miller questions and http://willamettelawonline.com/2011/11/miller-v-alabama/. 

SUPREME COURT DECISION COULD HAVE MAJOR IMPACT IN MICHIGAN

Thomas McCloud Jr. and Dontex Tillman

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

By John Barnes MLive.com

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear two cases involving whether life sentences without chance of parole for minors in death cases constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

With more “juvenile lifers” serving the mandatory sentences in Michigan than almost any other state, 358, the high court’s decision could have a large impact here.

The ruling comes as a similar case makes its way through federal court in Detroit. It was not immediately clear what impact Monday’s decision will have on the progress of the Michigan case.

It also comes as Mlive.com and its affiliated Booth Newspapers are running a series this week on juvenile lifers.

In deciding to hear the two new cases, the Supreme Court is potentially extending the reach of two recent decisions involving how juveniles are treated in adult court.

In 2005, the court ruled minors 17 and younger could not be given the death penalty.

In 2010, the court extended protections, ruling a minor could not be sentenced to life without  parole in non-homicide cases.

In both cases, the majority of justices ruled juveniles’ mental abilities are lesser developed than adults, and sentencing them as such violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The new cases would move the bar even further, banning mandatory life involving juvenile homicides, including when the juvenile was present at a crime, but did not commit the actual killing. About one-third of Michigan juvenile lifers fall in that category.

Both inmates in the cases involve 14-year-olds. But some Supreme Court watchers believe the justices would be unlikely to confine their ruling to that specific age, given their prior rulings using the 18th birthday as the constitutional dividing line.

There are about 70 such prisoners nationwide, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law firm in Alabama that represents the inmates.

Six juvenile lifers in in Michigan were 14 at the time of their crimes, including Dontez Tillman, the state’s youngest. He was profiled Monday on Mlive.com.

Michigan families traveled from across the state in 2006 to support legislation that would have outlawed juvenile life without parole sentencing' they included families of prisoners as well as family members of victims. Photo: Diane Bukowski

Edward Sanders

 VOD ed: Juvenile lifer Edward Sanders alerted us to this series of articles being published around the state by six different newspapers. Hopefully this coverage will encourage progress in the federal lawsuit being heard by U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of nine juvenile lifers. The last action on the case was Aug. 5, when the ACLU filed a response to the state’s motion for a stay pending interlocutroy appeal. Write Edward Sanders, #141545 at Kinross Correctional Facility, 16770 S. Watertower Drive  Kincheloe, MI 49788.

November 06, 2011; Updated: Thursday, November 10, 2011  

By John Barnes  Mlive.com

They were teenagers once, and did horrible things, or were in horrible places. People died. Sometimes at their hands; sometimes not. But they were present. 

And for that, they were told they will die, too, in prison. 

These are Michigan’s “juvenile lifers,” although most are much older now, sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. And there are more in this state than in almost any other. 

Keith Maxey

There is Keith Maxey, wounded in a drug theft gone bad. He was unarmed and fled, but another man was killed. A jury found the 16-year-old just as responsible as if he had pulled the trigger. Except the shooter got a lighter sentence. 

There, too, are identical twins David and Michael Samel, arrested at 17 for beating a pool hall worker to death. Michael pleaded to a reduced charge and was released in 2009. David took his chances with a jury. He is in the 30th year of life without parole. 

And there is Cedric King, 14 when he helped set up a marijuana thief to be killed. Except the court thought he was a year older, and the victim survived. Still, confusion has persisted for years over whether he was given the state’s severest punishment, or something less, a Booth Michigan investigation found. 

Cedric King

As a federal judge in Detroit weighs whether such sentences are unconstitutional, reporters from six newspapers and MLive.com spread out across the state. 

FACTS 

A juvenile lifer primer 

In general, mandatory life without parole is reserved for first-degree murder, but that covers a range of crimes: premeditated killing; intentional or unintentional death during another felony; or aiding and abetting the previous crimes. 

Here’s how the treatment of minors charged and convicted of such crimes has evolved: 

• Pre-1988: Only 17-years-olds automatically treated as adults; 15- and 16-year-olds waived to adult court only if juvenile judge approved. No one younger than 15 tried in adult court.
• October 1988 through 1996: 15- and 16-year-olds automatically waived to adult court. A judge had two options: Mandatory life in adult prison, or send them to a juvenile facility for release no later than 21. The number of juvenile lifers more than doubled from the previous eight years.
• 1997 to now: 14-year-olds also automatically tried as adults. Prosecutors also can designate 14- to 16-year-olds for “adult-like” proceedings in juvenile court, and request those 13 and younger be subject to the same proceedings.The change gave juvenile judges three options:

1. Commit the minor to a juvenile facility until 21.
2. Sentence them as adults to life without parole.
3. Apply a “blended” sentence, where the minor would go to a juvenile facility until 21. The judge would then determine whether to order mandatory life. 

Nathaniel Abraham on trial at 11; his feet could not reach the ground from his chair.

Nathaniel Abraham is the most famous case. He was 11 in 1997 when he killed 18-year-old Ronnie Green. He was charged with first-degree murder but convicted of second-degree murder. A juvenile judge chose to sentence him to a juvenile facility. Abraham was released in 2007 at 21, but was arrested 16 months later on a drug charge. His earliest release date is next August. 

They interviewed nearly two dozen inmates, including some who committed their crimes before they could drive. They also talked to victims’ families, prosecutors, judges and lawmakers. 

What they found was regret and bitterness, anger and forgiveness. They also found an issue measured more in shades of gray than black and white. 

Ask Shirley Schwartz what her brother would think of imprisoning juveniles for life, and she pauses. 

“That’s a really difficult question,” she finally says. Her college professor brother was “very liberal,” she recalls, an advocate for his urban neighborhood in Grand Rapids’ Heritage Hill. That was where he met his killers; Jerry Freid died after being beaten to death with a baseball bat during a burglary by a 16- and a 17-year-old. 

Ask Schwartz the same question, what she thinks of life sentences for juveniles, and she does not hesitate. 

“I never believed in the death penalty,” she says. “After this happened, I was pretty sure I could pull the switch. You can afford to be a liberal when it doesn’t touch you.” 

Told one of her brother’s killers died in prison, Schwartz says one word. 

“Good.” 

 A state industry 

Michigan spends more than $10 million a year to house more juvenile lifers than all but one other state, Pennsylvania. 

In all, 358 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes committed from ages 14 to 17. One in five has been in prison 25 years or longer.  Continue reading →

Police at schene of Oakland shooting near Occupy Oakland camp

Deborah Dupre

Human Rights Examiner

November 11, 2011 – Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates. 

Police have confirmed the shooting death of a young man in a gunfight that broke out near 12 Street BART police station, adjacent to Occupy Oakland camp at Frank Ogawa Plaza Thursday evening, the second night the city turned the lights out at the camp. Although investigators say the fight was not between protesting human rights workers at the camp, police say due to the incident, protesters must dissolve the camp, a city councilman is blaming the mayor, the mayor says she wants the camp dissolved.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan confirmed to ABC7 News that the shooting victim in a gunfight that broke out near BART police station and Occupy Oakland has passed away from his injuries. 

“Six gunshots rang out shortly before 5 p.m. several feet from the 12th Street BART station adjacent to the plaza where Occupy protesters have set up camp,” reports ABC7. 

Occupy Oakland holds candlelight vigil for shooting victim

The human rights Occupy protesters were the first to administer first aid to victims according to ABC News. 

An acting spokesperson for the human rights defender protesters told ABC7 that maybe the victim had been hiding nearby from a person or a group of people at the encampment shortly before the incident. 

City councilman Ignacio de la Fuente said in a phone interview with ABC7, “I have been very vocal on the fact that this cannot continue. I think fear has become a reality. This mayor has got to take responsibility for that.” 

De La Fuente said the Occupy encampment “does a lot of harm to the city and the individuals, and they should just pack and leave — and if not, we should take whatever action is necessary.”

The Occupy protesters formed a human chain around the victim until help arrived and are holding a candlelight vigil this evening. Continue reading →

Concern over Lou Engle’s Views as Prayer Summit Comes to Detroit: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Prayer Rally Planned to Oppose Michigan TheCall Event
Updated: Wednesday, 09 Nov 2011, 3:57 PM EST

Posted By: myFOXDetroit.com Staff

DETROIT (AP) – A coalition of Detroit clergy and community activists plan to march to a downtown football stadium and hold a prayer rally while thousands gather inside for a 24-hour Christian event known as TheCall.

The gathering inside Ford Field espouses anti-Muslim, anti-homosexual and anti-abortion beliefs and is designed to separate people of various faiths, the Rev. Charles Williams II told reporters Wednesday.

TheCall is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Friday. Organizers have said Detroit is a “microcosm of our national crisis” that includes economic and racial struggles, as well as “the rising tide of the Islamic movement.”

Detroit area Muslim leaders have said they fear some attendees might provoke or disrupt Friday prayers at local mosques.

“We certainly don’t believe that the Muslim community is what cast a dark shadow over the city of Detroit in terms of economics,” said Williams, pastor of Historic King Solomon Church in Detroit.

“Our prayer will be a prayer where we will be calling on God to help us solve the foreclosure crisis; to help us solve the job crisis; to help us solve the education crisis. This is the prayer we should be calling on, not a message of hate against those who are United States residents.”

The Associated Press left a message Wednesday seeking comment from Lou Engle, co-founder of TheCall assemblies.

Concern over Lou Engle’s Views as Prayer Summit Comes to Detroit
Updated: Tuesday, 08 Nov 2011, 10:07 PM EST

By BILL GALLAGHER
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com

DETROIT (WJBK) – Lou Engle is leading a prayer summit at Ford Field in Detroit this Friday and Saturday. His controversial remarks about homosexuals have raised concerns from Detroit religious leaders.

Rev. Charles Williams II, pastor of the historic King Solomon Baptist Church, is one of those leaders worried about Engle’s views.

“Any man who stands in Uganda and promotes a policy that would kill thousands of homosexuals [there] I think, obviously, is on the outside of what the real call for our Christian mission should actually be,” said Williams.

Muslim leaders are concerned about Engle’s belief that people of that faith are demonically possessed and require conversion to Christianity. The head of the Council on American Islamic Relations has spoken out against the call session in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Rev. Williams is calling for religious tolerance.

“I don’t believe, quite frankly, that the way he goes about his mission in terms of berating Muslims and Islam itself is the way to do that,” he said.

Lou Engle says Detroit needs economic and spiritual salvation.

Williams says Engle should concentrate his prayers on his native Minnesota.

“I would say to him that he can go back to Minnesota and spend his time praying in Minnesota, hopefully, that they might be able to be saved also,” he told us.

 Williams says he welcomes prayers for Detroit, but not divisive rhetoric.

“I think most of us in the City of Detroit and I think most Christians have much more sense then some of [these] radical religious right values that this guy’s promoting,” he explained. “We just don’t need that kind of politics of deception nor fear here in Detroit.”
Engle and representatives of TheCall did not return phone calls for comment.