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

DETROIT - NOVEMBER 20: A pedestrian walks by graffiti on a downtown street November 20, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. An estimated one in three Detroiters lives in poverty, making the city the poorest large city in America.

The Impact of Poverty on Utility Shut-offs

 Report to the Dexter Inquiry

 By Debra Watson
31 March 2010

http://wsws.org

The following report on poverty and welfare in Michigan was submitted to the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire, which held a hearing on March 20.

For several years, Detroit has had the highest poverty rate in the country. Many of the victims of deadly house fires are struggling to get by, balancing utility payments with other necessities. With real unemployment of 50 percent, many households rely on the completely inadequate social safety net.

Homeless people line up for food in downtown Detroit

Even the term “poor” is no longer adequate to describe the desperate conditions in Detroit. Judy Putnam, spokesperson for the non-profit Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS), told the World Socialist Web Site that a new term, “deep poverty,” has entered the agency’s lexicon. It describes a vast and growing population of US families whose income has fallen to a fraction of the official poverty level.

Putnam decried the failing of the safety net in Michigan. MLHS reports that since 1979 the value of the maximum public assistance grant has dropped from 23 percent below the poverty threshold to 66 percent below the poverty threshold. Thus a Michigan welfare or Family Independence Program (FIP) recipient today often lives at just 34 percent of the poverty level, a situation dictated by the very design of the program.

The current FIP grant is about $492 a month for a family of three. This leaves even the small percentage of families that do qualify for some form of state cash assistance without an adequate safety net to counter the effects of double-digit unemployment. As the recession drags on, more and more people are simply unable to live.

Display for Sylvia Young's three children at their funeral; they died due to a DTE utility shut-off in their desperately poor neighborhood.

One tragic form this situation has taken in Detroit is the death of three children, Trávion, Fantasia, and Selena Young, ages five, four, and three respectively, in the March 5 house fire on Bangor Street. Their mother, Sylvia Young, received FIP payments and was using a faulty space heater after utilities were shut off.

The current maximum FIP grant in Michigan for a family with seven children, the size of Young’s family, is only $11,820 annually. This is about one third of the 2009 poverty level for a family of this size ($37,010). Even with the full food stamp benefit for a large family, currently equal to a little over $1,000 per month, the family would have been far below the already inadequate monthly income the federal government has designated as the official poverty level. Continue reading →

By Marian Kramer

The People’s Tribune www.peoplestribune.org

June, 2011

The Michigan House and Senate passed legislation approving a four-year lifetime limit on welfare benefits. If you have been on welfare for four years, you are automatically cut off.

Come October 1, 12,600 families will be cut off the rolls. The family unit will also lose their insurance and their food stamps. Then every month, more people will be eliminated. If you have been on welfare for say three years, you only have one year left. Ohio is also going through this process — they are trying to legislate a three-year time limit. These are examples of the wholesale cuts that are taking place in the Rust Belt against that section of the working class that has the least. If allowed, it could eventually affect the whole working class.

Former Pres. Bill Clinton initiated 4-year limits with his federal welfare "reform" prorgam, which set back 60 years of improvements in the social safety net; Gov. John Engler was head of his reform task force

The four-year time limitation is part of TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the welfare “reform” bill that was passed in 1996 under the administration of Bill Clinton.

However, it was left up to the states as to when they would implement this part of the bill. Some states rushed to implement it and others tended to leave the time limitation alone.

Now, the present administration in Lansing—via Gov. Snyder—is not only implementing the time limitation with the blessing of the legislative branch of the government, he is going back retroactively.

[VOD ed.: However, the original legislation establishing the four-year limit was signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm at the beginning of her second term, although she had promised during her campaign not to do so. She used as an excuse that the legislation only cut off adults, not children in the family. It is unclear from the legislation whether that provision is still maintained.]

The Governor says people are to get a job. How can you get a job in an economy that is not producing jobs for the vast majority of people—people are thrown off the job rolls by technology. We have people coming into the Michigan Welfare Rights Office who are trying to match up two or three jobs. They still can’t survive. They are not grossing the amount of money they would have realized if they had their old jobs. They need assistance.

Homeless family waiting for housing assistance

The Michigan government claims that by moving to do the four-year time limitation, an estimated $77.4 million will be saved. There is no consideration given to what will happen to people without money to buy food or shelter. They will be out on the street.

If the masses of people do not rally against these particular cuts, it will set the foundation for the cuts to go deeper. They will continue the taxation on the pension, eat away at other benefits of the workers, and eliminate certain programs not relevant for the corporate interests. If we allow this to go forward, what is it going to do for social security on a federal level—and will there be a time limit for social security? We have to think about this. Enforcement of this bill would set the foundation for all of our benefits to be eliminated. Continue reading →

James Willingham and Jeffery Frazier, the real subjects of this story

From  the Committee to Defend Diane Bukowski and Freedom of the Press

July 11, 2011

 DETROIT — The families of two Black Detroiters, James Willingham and Jeffery Frazier, who died during a high-speed chase by state troopers the same day President Barack Obama was elected, Nov. 4, 2008, continue to grieve for them. Meanwhile, Michigan courts focus instead on the prosecution of reporter Diane Bukowski, who sought to tell their story in the pages of the Michigan Citizen. 

Trooper John Hetfield drove the car which pursued Willingham, who had ten children, and caused both his and Frazier's deaths.

That no discipline or charges have been brought against Troopers John Hetfield and James Wojton, who carried out the chase, and that the deaths of Willingham and Frazier have been forgotten by the major media, starkly illustrates the importance of this country’s First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.

 WHO WILL TELL THE STORIES OF PEOPLE LIKE WILLINGHAM AND FRAZIER, STORIES THAT ARE REPEATED EVERY DAY ACROSS THE POLICE STATE AND PRISON NATION CALLED THE U.S., IF THE PRESS IS PROSECUTED FOR COVERING THEM? SUCH STORIES ARE NOT TOLD TODAY IN THE PAGES OF THE MICHIGAN CITIZEN; THE PAPER FIRED BUKOWSKI IN 2010. 

Judge Michael Hathaway

Bukowski’s trial judge Michael Hathaway refused even to permit arguments at her trial in 2009 regarding her constitutional rights as a reporter. She was convicted of two felony counts of “assaulting, battering, wounding, resisting, obstructing, opposing, or endangering” troopers, brought by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Bukowski had reported on unjustified killings by police and Worthy’s refusal to prosecute them for the previous nine years. 

On May 10, 2011, Appeals Court Judges David H. Sawyer, Jane E. Markey, and Karen M. Fort Hood denied her appeal, filed by attorneys John Royal and Sharon McPhail. They denied it on every single ground raised in the appeals brief, a summary of which is available on http://freedianebukowski.org.  The appeals court decision is available by clicking on Bukowski COA opinion.) 

There are numerous issues addressed in both documents. But most glaring is the fact that the appeals court upheld Hathaway’s refusal to allow arguments on the First Amendment, a matter that should concern every reporter and every freedom-loving person in this country. 

“Although this case does not involve a defense based on an illegal arrest, the clarity of the Statute [MCL 750.81d] in terms of its intent and its elements supports a conclusion that defendant may not defend based on her status as a news gatherer,” the Appeals Court said. “The statute does not call upon an officer performing his or her duties to ascertain whether the person obstructing, resisting, opposing, or endangering the officer is a news gatherer, or permit a person that is gathering news to avoid criminal liability for such actions with respect to an individual who is known or should be known to be an officer who is performing his or her duties.” 

Never mind that Judge Hathaway precluded First Amendment arguments in a pre-trial motion, while Bukowski was only charged under MCL 750.81d, not convicted. No details of her arrest (during which she was completely passive as shown in a Fox 2 news video) had yet been presented to the jury. 

Never mind that Hetfield and Wojton testified at the trial about the chase, although they were long gone by the time Bukowski arrived on the scene. Never mind that Hathaway once again stopped Bukowski from telling the story of Willingham and Frazier’s deaths when he prevented her trial attorney from cross-examining the officers on whether the chase violated vehicle pursuit rules, and then stopped Bukowski from testifying about her findings on the chase during her direct exam. 

(Click on http://freedianebukowski.org to read the full history of the Bukowski case, including links to stories of other journalists similarly attacked by police.) 

Asst. Prosecutor Tom Trczinski

That Prosecutor Worthy and her Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Trczinski even brought a motion to preclude arguments regarding the First Amendment is an indication of the evil depths into which the “justice” system in Detroit has fallen. 

“I at first wanted to let the appeals court decision go,” Bukowski said. “I have witnessed the absolute injustices perpetrated by the court system not only in my case but in numerous other cases I have covered over the years. Many who are currently incarcerated or in the ground are there because of that system, especially those who are Black, Latin, and poor.” 

“I was at least fortunate enough not to serve jail time, or to be a young person still seeking employment and housing with felonies on my record. My dedicated and highly skillful appeals attorneys have been paid virtually nothing for their work, and there are no more funds available. But attorney Royal convinced me that it was important to pursue the appeal, and volunteered to do so only for payment of court costs.” 

The crimes, the deaths of WIllingham and Frazier, were committed by State Troopers

So, on May 31, Attorney Royal filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the appeals court opinion. The motion addresses numerous other issues raised in Bukowski’s appeal, including the fact that she was convicted for allegedly crossing a crime scene tape, a charge on which she had not been bound over from District Court. 

“Contrary to this Court’s opinion,” Royal wrote, “. . . .it was and continues to be improper for the prosecution to try a defendant on a legal theory of the offense which was not submitted at the examination without first making a pretrial motion to amend the information.” 

Royal also argued that the Appeals Court was erroneous in ignoring the actions of a trooper who erased photographs from Bukowski’s camera, then testified at her trial that those photographs would have shown that she was inside a prohibited area. Royal said it is legal precedent that photographs are considered material evidence, and that the trooper’s testimony should have been ruled inadmissible as “hearsay.” 

During her trial, on cross-exam by Trzcinski, Bukowski characterized the statements of the state troopers who testified against her as “perjury.” Royal and McPhail objected that Trczinski should not have been allowed to question Bukowski on the validity of their statements. The appeals court claimed that Bukowski opened the door by testifying the officers had perjured themselves on direct exam. The motion for reconsideration says that Bukowski never gave such testimony on direct exam. 

“If the Appeals Court denies the motion, I will still continue to the State Supreme Court level,” Bukowski said. “Meanwhile, I continue to battle our criminal INJUSTICE system in the pages of the Voice of Detroit, the Final Call, and the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper. I have covered miscarriages of justice like the conviction of Jason Gibson in the death of Officer Brian Huff, the appalling police murder of seven-year-old Aiyana Jones, the unjust prosecution of Maryanne Godboldo, and the battle of families whose loved one were convicted based on falsified crime lab evidence. I have not been scared off or silenced by this attack, and I hope that it will not have that effect on other journalists.” 

Despite Attorney John Royal’s willingness to pursue her appeals pro bono, Diane Bukowski asks that anyone who wants to contribute to this battle for freedom of the press please send checks made out to “John Royal” to The Voice of Detroit, P.O. Box 32684, Detroit, MI 48232. For further information, call Attorney Royal at 313-962-3739. Diane Bukowski can be reached by emailing diane_bukowski@hotmail.com.

Karen "Burberry" Dumas and Dave "Rick" Bing

By David Rambeau
 

With all the controversy swirling around the mayor’s office focusing on the termination of Karen “Burberry” Dumas from her position as communication director for the city of Detroit, it might be difficult to hear the laughing in the background or the smiles on the faces of certain people, but I swear I heard late one night laughter coming from the cell of ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick just before he nodded off to sleep with these thoughts fading into pleasant dreams:

Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in court

…All you high and mighty people thought I was bad news for the city.  Well, at least I got through my first term without all this noise, and reelected to a second term before I ran into a little bad luck.  I’d still be mayor if people would have just minded their own business.  Now look at what’s happening…  And while the cot in his cell might be hard, his face is ringed with a smile of grim satisfaction.  
 
There were others too.  Somewhere in his suburban townhouse or whatever luxury housing he enjoys, I think a smile rippled across the face of our former Chief of Police Warren Evans as he sat on his patio watching the sunset, remembering fondly his days as chief before he too was fired by Mayor Bing.  You remember Warren Evans, the police chief who wanted to be a cable television star, who made the trailer walking heroically into the camera, bandoleers across his chest, looking like an ageing urban ninja warrior. 

Warren Evans

Warren Evans who told our current police chief, Ralph Godbee, to take care of the evidence in the closed up, fenced in former Detroit crime lab.   “I wanted to do a crime drama, thinks Evans, now what they have at city hall is a soap opera.”
 
And in another suburb the creditors of Bing Enterprises, still out about $400,000 for unpaid bills when the mayor was in the steel business, read the papers about the happenings at city hall and burst into a jubilant monologue, “Well, the n….. stiffed us, now he’s got some problems of his own.  What goes around, comes around.”

It is easy to understand their shadenfreude.  Over thirty former employees have been fired by the Bing Administration for various and sundry offenses.  Some have simply resigned to seek other pastures or opportunities.  But with the legal action filed by Rochelle Collins the soap opera will continue, and we’ll obtain more details about the inner workings in the executive chambers and what real transparency actually is.  

Some data is already alleged.  For instance.  Did the director of communications actually convince the mayor to cancel a Washington appointment with the senior senator from Michigan so she could go shopping at a luxury retail store in the nation’s capital?  Could that really be true?  Did she really say, “You can meet with that old dude anytime.  When it’s time to shop, it’s time to shop.”  

One city council member stated that the people of Detroit are exhausted and embarrassed by all the shenanigans going on downtown.  No, we’re not exhausted and embarrassed.  Bing isn’t; Dumas isn’t.  Why should we be?  This is entertainment, tragi-comedy.  If anything in Detroit is a cause for concern, it’s unemployment, rising food prices, homelessness, lack of opportunity, and crime.  The drama at city hall is comic relief.  Where is Efee, the Clowncilwoman, when we need her political commentary?  

City workers demands jobs for youth, not privatization

There’s more.  The elderly are concerned about their aches and pains and Jesus.  Those on fixed income are concerned about the rising cost of living.  The employed are worried about their mortgage payments, foreclosure, falling housing values, high property taxes and credit card payments.  Junkies are worried about drugs, youth about the lack of jobs.  Why should they be exhausted or embarrassed about a city hall dog and pony show?  What we all need is “panem et circenses.”
 
And the plaintiff, Rochelle Collins, out of a job, fired, after twenty-one years with the city.  I’m sure she didn’t expect that when she became executive assistant to the mayor.  Would you?  What a way to end a career. 
 
The mayor and Burberry had their script together on this complaint, but what will they say when another person sues, and then another?  Collins may be the first, but will she be the last?  This may be the end of the first act, but with most full length plays the second act comes next and then, the finale?  
 

Let them eat cake

What we have here is a class problem, not a racial problem.  Burberry has an upper class attitude and life style.  She was making a $140,000 salary with $140,000 in benefits and perks.  That’s $280,000 per annum.  A few Detroit residents have a middle class income and perspective, while over 50% have a lower class environment.  That means the dollar store and used clothing outlets.  That means fast food and missed meals and bus rides.  That means SSI, welfare and no health insurance. Many Detroiters are functionally illiterate, unskilled and out of work.
“Forget about meeting with the senior senator from Michigan; I got to shop.  What’s that you say?  (As Jean-Jacques Rousseau said) The people have no bread.  No bread, let them eat cake.”   
 
Watch for the next episode of Burberry and the Wuss.  
 

References: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

                      Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

David Rambeau

David Rambeau is the producer of the television program, For My People, that airs Saturday mornings on Ch. 50 WKBD-TV and publisher of the Urban Theater Magazine.  Episodes of For My People may be found on Project BAIT’s web channel: youtube.com/projectbaitdet.   

Our 40th Anniversary Project BAIT t-shirts are available for $15 plus $5 s&h.  Call 313-871-3333 for or information.

Attorney Allison Folmar addressed media after Maryanne Godboldo’s arraignment in March; supporters listened

Defense fights to quash order that resulted in daughter’s seizure by police, affirm mother’s right to defend child and home 

By Diane Bukowski 

36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles

DETROIT  —  Thirty-Sixth District Court Judge Ronald Giles said June 30 that he is “ready to rule” in the Maryanne Godboldo case, both on a defense motion to quash the civil order police used as an excuse to break down her door to take her 13-year-old daughter in March, and a prosecution motion to suppress any evidence related to the court order. 

At the request of defense attorney Allison Folmar, however, he adjourned Godboldo’s preliminary exam on multiple charges of “assaulting, battering, wounding, resisting, obstructing, opposing, or endangering” Detroit police officers until Monday, July 25, “promptly” at 8:30 a.m. 

Maryanne Godboldo speaks to supporters at vigil outside Hawthorne Center during the time her daughter Ariana was held there involuntarily.

Godboldo has received international support in her stand against Child Protective Services’ attempt to take custody of Ariana, 13, in order to force her to take a dangerous psychotropic medication, Risperdal. A rally in her support is planned for Sunday, July 17 at the Little Rock Baptist Resource Center, 8801 Woodward at Gladstone, from 4 to 6 p.m. (Put “Godboldo” in VOD search engine to access earlier stories on case.)  

“How do you tell me I need to address the prosecution’s issue when I just got their motion today?” Folmar said. “Our issue is that the court order is not presumptively valid. I mean to address the matter of whether or not my client had the right to protect her child in her own home.” 

She displayed a copy of the initial document, “Order To Take Child(ren) into Protective Custody,” in the Godboldo case. It is blank at the line where the individual assigned to take custody is identified, says both that Child Protective Services did and did not “make reasonable efforts to prevent removal of the child(ren) from the home,”, and has only the rubber-stamped signature of Judge Leslie Kim Smith. Click on Order_to_Take_Children_into_Protective_Custody_321602_7[1] to view blank form from Department of Human Services website. 

“You can rubber stamp an order to take a car or a home, but you cannot rubber stamp an order to take a child,” Folmar said. 

Mia Wenk

CPS worker Mia Wenk obtained the order and contacted police to accompany her, although she was not on the porch when police knocked on Godboldo’s door. Folmar said Godboldo opened the door, asked if police had a warrant, and then closed it when they did not produce one. 

Folmar said the court order was stamped at 11:30 a.m. March 24, and police appeared on Godboldo’s doorstep later that afternoon. The order gives 30 days to take whatever action is requested. It is a civil order, not a criminal complaint. 

“Is it OK no judge ever read the order?” Folmar asked. “Is it OK that you can download an order online yourself and get it rubber-stamped with no legal ramifications? Is it OK that police can go to a person’s home to take their child with this order? You don’t kick in their door 10 minutes after being at the scene to execute a civil order. What was stopping them from leaving and going to court to get a warrant?” 

Not only did Detroit police kick in Godboldo’s door, they were part of a Special Response Team armed with assault weapons and armor, and brought armored vehicles to the home where only Godboldo and her daughter lived. 

“The last time Detroit police went storming into somebody’s home, they killed a little girl,” Folmar said. “If they had gotten in, they probably would have killed both Maryanne and her daughter,” Folmar said. Godboldo surrendered voluntarily after a 12-hour stand-off on the advice of community supporters and a judge.

Anastasia Worthy with mother as Kym Worthy was sworn in as WC Prosecutor Feb. 2004; where is justice for two other little girls--Aiyana Jones and Ariana Godboldo?

A Detroit police Special Response Team shot seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones to death after bombing her east-side home without warning in May of last year. That case has also engendered world-wide outrage. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has yet to file charges against Officer Joseph Weekley or others involved in the child’s death, but hurried to file “one count of Discharge of a Weapon in a Dwelling, three counts of Felonious Assault,  three counts of Resisting and Obstructing an Officer, and a Felony Firearm count” against Godboldo. Godboldo faces up to eight years in prison. 

Worthy herself is the single mother of an only child, Anastasia, who is close to Ariana’s age. Judge Giles and his wife Joyce Hayes-Giles, a DTE executive, are parents of two high-school age daughters. 

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Paula Humphries earlier stayed all criminal proceedings in the Godboldo case until the Michigan Supreme Court decides People v. Moreno, a similar case involving police entrance into a home without a warrant. 

Ronald Giles with wife Joyce Hayes-Giles; DTE Board member Alfred Glancy and wife Ruth at right

In granting leave to appeal the Moreno case, the Supreme Court said, “The parties shall address 1) whether a person present in his/her own home can lawfully resist police officers who unlawfully and forcibly enter the home, without violating MCL 750.81d; 2) If not, whether so interpreted MCL 750.81d is unconstitutional; 3) Whether a defendant prosecuted under MCL 750.81d for resisting a police officer who unlawfully and forcibly enters defendant’s home can claim self-defense.” 

Judge Edward Ewell, Jr.

Third Circuit Court Judge Edward Ewell overturned the stay, saying the cases were dissimilar because the police had the court order, which he implied was equivalent to a criminal warrant.

According to the state’s court website, the Michigan Association for Justice (MAJ) plans to file an amicus brief on behalf of Angelo Moreno.

Attorney Racine Miller is writing the brief for the 2,000 member MAJ. She said she is in contact with and assisting Folmar in the Godboldo case, and that the Moreno case involves far more than one instance of unconstitutional actions by police.

“We filed (and were granted) leave to participate because the civil rights of our state’s citizens are being eroded in favor of a police state,” attorney Miller said. “Moreno is not just a criminal case nor is it just about what happened to Angel Moreno. The High Court’s decision will have a far broader impact. In 2004, we as citizens lost the right to resist an unlawful command given by a police officer when the [appeals court] decision in People v Ventura came down. The resisting and obstructing statute and Ventura are being called into question here. 

Racine Miller with her teenage daughters

“We have a tremendous opportunity to discuss with the Justices why not only the warrantless, forcible entry into our homes by police officers should not be condoned, but also to reclaim our right to resist unlawful police commands, and reexamine the intent of the resisting and obstructing statute 750.81d,  to ensure that it is constitutionally applied and that our legal system, law enforcement and judicial resources are not squandered by overreaching. I have two teenage daughters who are learning to drive, and police contact is all but certain. It is so painful to explain to them that they must obey an officer, regardless of what they know their rights to be, and fight about any misconduct through the proper channels after the fact. 

Diane Bukowski under arrest by Michigan State Troopers Nov. 4, 2008 for covering story of trooper chase that result in deaths of two Detroiters

 “Further, after what you’ve personally been through, it’s clear that there are more frequent instances of police abusing the authority they’ve been charged with – we cannot extend their ability to do so without legitimate justification.” 

[VOD ed. Diane Bukowski: I was charged and convicted of two counts under the same statute, while in the performance of my job as a journalist for The Michigan Citizen, in 2008. My appeal was denied, but my lawyers John Royal and Sharon McPhail have filed a motion for reconsideration, and plan to go to the State Supreme Court as well if that fails. Story coming on that matter. For further information on my case, click on http://freedianebukowski.org. ).

MCL 750.81d reads in part, “(1) Except as provided in subsections (2), (3), and (4), an individual who assaults, batters, wounds, resists, obstructs, opposes, or endangers a person who the individual knows or has reason to know is performing his or her duties is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than $2,000.00, or both.”

Folmar said police were not lawfully performing their duties when they kicked Godboldo’s door in, and therefore she should not be subject to those charges.

Police state

“It would be outrageous and offend sensibility to think the police can break into a home without a warrant, or that when they knock you to the ground and you defend yourself you could be charged with a felony,” Moreno’s attorney, Craig Haehnel, of Grand Rapids, earlier told VOD. “It’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment.  . . . even under the current statute, the definition of ‘obstruction’ requires that it involves lawful activity [by the police].” 

Sandra Hines, who works with the Justice4Maryanne committee, called on the community to attend both the support rally for Godboldo July 17 as well as the court hearing July 25, en masse. 

From the Justice4Maryanne committee:

You are invited to the

Historic Little Rock Resource Center – 8801 Woodward Avenue at Gladstone
NEXT SUNDAY: July 17, 2011 at 4:00pm for
The Speak Out Rally and Fundraiser

To Stop Child Protective Services corruption, come to sign the Federal and State Petitions for an investigation of CPS. Also, come to enjoy the program and receive information. 

***Maryanne Godboldo is a catalyst for Michigan to put a stop to CPS Corruption.***

It’s time for us to speak up and SPEAK OUT about what CPS is doing. Please join us. Please spread the word about this event and this cause.

For more information, click on http://www.justice4maryanne.com/, call 313-867-4841, or email justice4maryanne@gmail.com

Prisoners must have access to loved ones, lawyers at affordable prices

Posted by Pete Eyre on Thursday, April 14, 2011

Prison Phone Justice – a new campaign launched by our friends at Prison Legal News (PLN) to “challenge prison phone kickbacks and the U.S. Prison Telephone Industry” – could dramatically improve the lives of those caged by lessening their costs when calling the outside world.

This past week PLN announced their exhaustive report that details the bureaucratic kickback structure that has spawned as a result of the warehousing of individuals in cages. According to their press release:

The report, based on several years of research that included submitting public records requests in all 50 states, found that prison phone companies routinely provide kickbacks – euphemistically known as “commissions” – to contracting government agencies, based on a percentage of the revenue earned from prisoners’ phone calls.

These kickbacks, which average 42% of gross revenue, generated over $152 million nationwide in 2007-2008. Since the vast majority of prisoners’ phone calls are paid by their families, either by accepting collect calls or by funding pre-paid or debit accounts, most of the kickback money comes from prisoners’ family members.

According to the Facts page on Prison Phone Justice:

Women prisoners need to talk to their children

Put into simple terms, up to 60% of the costs of calls from prison has nothing to do with the cost of the phone service provided. So when Mary talks to her husband 40% percent of the cost is for the service and 60% is a kickback to the state government.

Though I’ve never been caged in prison, I have experienced the restrictive access and prohibitive cost of making calls from jail. When my friend Ademo was jailed in Las Vegas there was a $10 fee each time he called out, plus a charge for each minute on the phone. For those caged for longer periods of time (prison entails a sentence of over a year) it only compounds the financial burden to the family on the outside. Not only are they left without the income that that caged person may have contributed (a loss), but merely staying in touch erodes their bottom line (another loss).

Help Prison Phone Justice change the Status Quo. Make it easier for those caged to reach their loved ones, to have better access to legal help and other resources, and to do interviews to share their story with others.

Crowd gathered at AFSCME Council 25 hall to kick off referendum campaign against PA 4 chants, "Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights."

Successful referendum petition will immediately freeze PA 4; lawsuit challenges state constitutionality

By Diane Bukowski 

June 30, 2011

DETROIT, – Labor and community groups from across Michigan are determined to deliver a fatal one-two punch to Public Act 4, popularly known as the Dictator Act.

PUNCH #1: VOTER REFERENDUM ROLLED OUT JUNE 18

Cecily McClellan has Morris Mays sign referendum petition against PA 4

“Voters around the state see emergency managers as a naked power grab by Lansing,” the Committee to Stand Up for Democracy said in a release June 17. “Thanks to PA 4, political opponents of officials on the local level don’t have to beat them in elections. They can simply circumvent the vote by getting Lansing politicians to appoint friends who support their political agenda. This is not democracy and it violates the right of Michigan citizens to elect a local, representative government.”

The Committee, a coalition of community, religious, labor and progressive organizations, rolled out a petition campaign at meetings in 13 cities across Michigan June 18, aiming to put a referendum vote on the state ballot in the Nov. 2012 elections. According to the State Constitution, once 161,000 signatures are collected and validated by the state elections bureau, PA 4 will be suspended until the state’s voters have their say.

Greg Bowens, media representative for the Coalition, said at an earlier meeting that current emergency managers would be forced to step down in the interim. He also explained that since the previous Local Government Fiscal Responsibility Act 72 of 1990, was replaced by PA 4, it is no longer on the book and will not be in effect either.

DPS EM Roy Roberts with Rick-tator Snyder

“Watch out, Joe Harris, Mike Stampfler, and Roy Roberts,” said one PA 4 opponent (who asked not to be identified), recently.  “You are about to lose your fascist powers and you had better hope you don’t meet the fate of previous Emergency Financial Managers (EFM’s) for the Detroit Public Schools as well, because justice WILL be contagious.”

Kenneth Burnley, RIP

Bobb

Former DPS EFM Kenneth Burnley, Jr., 69, who decimated the district with school closings, lay-offs, and massive privatization, died unexpectedly July 2 after undergoing knee surgery in Colorado. His successor, Robert Bobb, has been diagnosed with throat cancer.

Joe Harris

Joe Harris is currently EM of Benton Harbor and has already stripped the city’s mayor and city commissioners of their powers, along with banning the city’s residents from beautiful PUBLIC Jean Klock park and beach during certain hours (see VOD story at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=8318.)

Roberts is the current EM for DPS and is carrying out more school closings and charterization of what little remains of the district. Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson reported at an earlier meeting that Roberts told him he plans to abrogate the DFT contract.

Keith Johnson

All of DPS’ teachers have received lay-off notices and it is unclear who, if anyone, will be called back. Johnson said he is waiting to see what happens before taking legal action.

Mike Stampfler

Stampfler, Pontiac’s EM, dismantled Pontiac’s City Commission in May and later proposed that Pontiac be dissolved and merge with Oakland County. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, however, was averse to taking the majority Black city of Pontiac under the wing of the wealthiest (and predominantly white) county in the country.

At the AFSCME Council 25 hall in Detroit June 18, over one hundred union and community individuals showed up to get petitions and red and white T-shirts declaring “STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY!” They marched into the hall chanting, “GET UP, STAND UP, STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS,” taken from the famous Bob Marley song.

Herb Sanders

Attorney Herbert Sanders, who is also an international representative for AFSCME, addressed the gathering. Sanders, Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, and a coalition known as “We Are the People” have already held massive rallies up to 10,000 strong in Lansing, Michigan to denounce PA4, Governor Rick Snyder and the state’s anti-labor, anti-community legislators.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW PEOPLE CAN VOLUNTEER TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY, AND COLLECT PETITION SIGNATURES, CALL 1-866-306-5168. The Committee is headquartered at 1034 N. Washington, Lansing, MI. 48906. Facebook page is at

http://www.facebook.com/LansingCommunityActionTeam?sk=wall&filter=2. 

Plaintiff Edith Lee Payne addresses press conference June 22 to oppose PA 4; plaintiffs Evelyn Foreman and Les Little are to her left; Attorneys Darius Charney and John Philo at far left, Monica Patrick (next to sign), Charles Brown and Councilwoman Joann Watson at far right

PUNCH#2:  STATE-WIDE LAWSUIT FILED IN INGHAM COUNTY JUNE 22

Four local law firms and New York City’s Center For Constitutional Rights filed suit against PA 4 on  June 22 in Ingham County Circuit Court. There are 28 plaintiffs from across the state from all walks of life. Defendants are Governor Rick Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon.

The lawsuit, #11-685-CZ, has been assigned to 30^th Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie E. Aquilina, but no hearings have been set to date. Aquilina was elected to her seat in 2008 after serving as 55^th District Court Judge since 2004.  She is a major in the Michigan Army National Guard, where she received a commendation medal for Operation Desert Storm and the Army Achievement Medal, and also an adjunct professor at Thomas Cooley Law School.

Press conferences announcing the filing of the lawsuit took place in Detroit, Lansing, Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Flint, and Grand Rapids June 22.

In Detroit, City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, along with three of the Detroit plaintiffs, Edith Lee-Payne, Evelyn Foreman, and Leslie Little, stood in front of the Spirit of Detroit statute outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. They were joined by attorneys including John Philo of the Sugar Law Center and Darius Charney of CCR, who flew in from New York for the event.

Child wonders when legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be fulfilled

“I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 48 years ago both here in Detroit and in Washington, D.C.,” Payne said. “As a Christian, mother of two sons, grandmother of eight, and civil rights activist with experiences of racial and social injustices, I have a personal and moral duty to ensure my family and community continue to inherit the constitutional provisions they are entitled to morally and legally in every area of their lives. Countless Black Americans met their deaths with freedom papers in their hands because a select few people refused to acknowledge their rights and freedom.”

Payne has been active recently in battling DTE’s shut-off practices, neglect of Detroit neighborhoods, and takeover of the city’s public lighting provision.

Foreman is a retired Detroit Public Schools teacher who decried the damage that state takeovers have done to the district and the city’s youth, while Little is a long-time community activist, currently working with Hood Research.

Juanita Henry

A Benton Harbor plaintiff, The Honorable Juanita Henry, is a city commissioner who was stripped of her duties by EM Joe Harris.

“They are using Benton Harbor as a test case,” Henry said in earlier remarks. “If they have disenfranchised the people so badly they just don’t respond to anything, they can do this all over the country.”

Unionists and community activists confronted Governor Rick Snyder in person at the area’s Blossomtime Festival in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph (date go to), and previously protested outside City Hall (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=7162 for story.)

Tameka Ramsey

Pontiac plaintiff Tameka Ramsey said, “At a time when every community is struggling and tightening their belts, what Michigan families need and deserve are real solutions from Lansing. Instead, they now face bagmen from big banks who will end services and cut jobs with zero input from local families.”

Philo said the country’s big corporations and financial institutions are behind the enactment of laws like PA 4, which will make it easier for them to pillage the assets of local governments during their own economic crisis.

The lawsuit says PA 4 violates numerous provisions of the Constitution of the State of Michigan.

They include the Nondelegation Doctrine, which provides that powers of legislative bodies (like Detroit’s City Council) cannot be delegated to the city’s chief administrative officer (like Mayor Dave Bing, who was recently exposed in a lawsuit claiming that he met with Gov. Snyder and others to make sure PA 4 would include such provisions.
The Nondelegation Doctrine also bars powers of local officials from being delegated to emergency managers, says the lawsuit.

It says PA 4 delegates more power than the legislature possesses by allowing emergency managers to repeal acts taken by local government bodies, abrogates the right of local electors to form charters such as the Detroit City Charter, and to elect their own officials.

It also cites the Headlee Amendment, which requires that new rules enforced on local governments must be accompanied by adequate financing. PA 4 requires local governments to fund all the expenses associated with emergency managers, without providing any additional funds .

The lawsuit asks for a declaration by the court that the Act violates the State Constitution, and for injunctive relief “restraining present and future emergency managers appointed under the act from implementing or exercising authority and powers” conveyed by the act.

Philo said the lawsuit does not ask for monetary damages to citizens, although it does ask for “attorneys’ fees and costs, and for such further relief as is just and equitable.”

We are the People rally in Lansing April 13

Tanks roll down Linwood to confront Maryanne and Ariana Godboldo, a lone mother and child in their home, on Mar. 24, 2011

AlterNet / By Rania Khalek

Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force

The federal government has supplied local police departments with military uniforms, weaponry, vehicles, and training.

July 5, 2011  |  

Aiyana Stanley-Jones, murdered by Detroit police assault team

Just after midnight on May 16, 2010, a SWAT team threw a flash-bang grenade through the window of a 25-year-old man while his 7-year-old daughter slept on the couch as her grandmother watched television. The grenade landed so close to the child that it burned her blanket. The SWAT team leader then burst into the house and fired a single shot which struck the child in the throat, killing her. (VOD ed. correction: the bullet struck her in the top of the head). The police were there to apprehend a man suspected of murdering a teenage boy days earlier. The man they were after lived in the unit above the girl’s family.

The shooting death of Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones sounds like it happened in a war zone. But the tragic SWAT team raid took place in Detroit.

Shockingly, paramilitary raids that mirror the tactics of US soldiers in combat are not uncommon in America. According to an investigation carried out by the Huffington Post’s Radley Balko, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement over the last 30 years, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units for routine police work. In fact, the most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

Police with assault weapons stalk Maryanne and Ariana Godboldo March 24, 2011

Some 40,000 of these raids take place every year, and are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. And as demonstrated by the case of Aiyana Mo’nay Stanley-Jones, these raids have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries.

How did we allow our law enforcement apparatus to descend into militaristic chaos? Traditionally, the role of civilian police has been to maintain the peace and safety of the community while upholding the civil liberties of residents in their respective jurisdiction. In stark contrast, the military soldier is an agent of war, trained to kill the enemy.

Clearly, the mission of the police officer is incompatible with that of a soldier, so why is it that local police departments are looking more and more like paramilitary units in a combat zone? The line between military and civilian law enforcement has been drawn for good reason, but following the drug war and more recently, the war on terror, that line is inconspicuously eroding, a trend that appears to be worsening by the decade.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 is a civil war-era law that prohibits the use of the military for civilian policing. For a long time, Posse Comitatus was considered the law of the land, forcing militarization advocates to come up with creative ways to get around it. In addition to assigning various law enforcement duties to the military, such as immigration control, over the years Congress has instituted policies that encourage law enforcement to emulate combat soldiers. Hence, the establishment of the SWAT team in the 1960s.

Birth of SWAT in LA police raid on Black Panthers

Originally called the Special Weapons Attack Team, the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units were inspired by an incident in 1966, when an armed man climbed to the top of the 32-story clock tower at the University of Texas in Austin and fired randomly for 90 minutes, shooting 46 people and killing 15, until two police officers got to the top of the tower and killed him. This episode is said to have “shattered the last myth of safety Americans enjoyed [and] was the final impetus the chiefs of police needed” to form their own SWAT teams. Soon after, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) formed the country’s first SWAT team, which acquired national prestige when used against the Black Panthers in 1969. (VOD ed: Click on  http://witnessla.com/lapd/2011/admin/41st-and-central-1969-the-black-panther-shootout-the-birth-of-swat/.)

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