The Detroit People’s Task Force to Free the Wrongfully Convicted will be hosting a protest on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 8 a.m. in front of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice at 1441 St. Antoine Street to address the ongoing scandals involving the Detroit Crime Lab and the cases of many wrongfully convicted defendants. The lab has been closed for three years, and there have been no new trials, despite the Wayne County Prosecutor’s pledge to confess error three years ago and award new trials to those wrongfully convicted. In addition, the Prosecutor and the Detroit Police have engaged in a campaign of denying justice by destroying evidence and case files while at the same time illegally obtaining funding of city tax dollars to conduct sham investigations that went nowhere.
The prosecutor should not be meddling with the files her staff handled in fraudulently convicting people to prison. And the Detroit Police should not be in charge of guarding the very fraudulent evidence they produced to obtain those convictions. The task force has been fighting for three years for an independent audit into the investigations of adjudicated cases of wrongful convictions. And with the recent revelations of yet more scandals involving Detroit Police and the Prosecutor as it concerns these cases, enough is enough. Our freedoms from unjust imprisonment are at risk; our rights to due process of law are at risk; and every fundamental right to a fair trial has been lost. We cannot sit idly by while this attack on humanity continues. Please come out and support the task force in calling for an independent federal probe into the Detroit Crime Lab. Let not your silence become betrayal and defend the lives of those whose freedoms were stolen from them. The life you save from such capricious government today may be your own tomorrow.
For more information about the protest, please contact Roberto Guzman, Paralegal and Activist at (313) 272-1406 or Marilyn Jordan, President of the Task Force at (313) 784-4021 or Kevin Carey, Executive Director, at (313) 887-4344
Young Detroit Public Schools student speaks at march to stop school closings May 11, 2011
Alberto Ampuero* Havana. June 2, 2011
GRANMA ONLINE
If you had to express the greatness of the United States in one word, that word would be “education,” according to Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Economics.
But that was earlier, when the development of education primarily signified the development of public education, and the U.S. was seen as the great land where higher education was available to the general population. Today, this image of the country has collapsed, says Krugman.
The United States currently has problems of all sizes, shapes and colors. One of the most serious is the crisis of the public education system. The low scores of academic performance and the failure of standardized tests on the part of tens of thousands of students from poor and marginalized communities combine with constant budget cuts and the trends toward privatization of the public education sector.
Add to all this a fundamental problem: Public education has undergone a qualitative shift in its operation and objectives. Education is no longer seen as a right; it has become a business opportunity. Teachers have become employees who pursue the “success” of their “clients” — the students — and the role of education authorities is in the process of being reduced to mere administrative functions at best.
In his speeches, Joel Klein, former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, has repeated that “the secret ingredient of America’s success is its entrepreneurial spirit,”* and that this was the objective of education.
Defend Public Education
Klein and about a dozen other municipal education leaders reiterated this vision last October in a joint opinion piece in the Washington Post, where they asserted that “the transformative changes needed to truly prepare our kids for the 21st-century global economy simply will not happen unless we first shed some of the entrenched practices that have held back our education system, practices that have long favored adults, not children.”
This approach to promote the reform of the education system forms a part of a national debate in which the “reformers” in power have declared that the public education system is a failure. They declare that more than any other factor, the main obstacle to student success “is the quality of their teachers,” and they propose applying business rules that above all assess teacher effectiveness.
There is a second line of attack, in which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is actively participating, which attacks public schools as ineffective, without taking into account the meager resources with which they operate, and accuses teachers’ unions of refusing to accept the dismissal of less qualified teachers. Its alternative is charter schools, which are public schools that are administered by private groups and presented by the Obama administration as key to the salvation of public education.
As part of its Race to the Top program, the government is incentivizing states to raise their limits on the number of charter schools in exchange for federal funds.
Furthermore, the current administration seeks to replace roughly 5,000 poorly performing traditional schools with charter schools. The government has made the juicy sum of $3.5 billion available to the states to subsidize the “change” of these poorly performing schools. The more poorly performing schools that close, the more money the states receive.
But as Diane Ravitch points out, charter schools are “a force for privatization” of public education. Ravitch is a professor at New York University and former Assistant Secretary of Education, and one of the most influential national figures in the debate.
This type of school, financed with public funds, does not need to operate under the same rules as other public schools. It usually selects its students instead of accepting everyone, which allows it to deliver better results. Its teachers are not necessarily unionized; therefore, they lack labor rights. And it can accept private investment, which allows it to establish other regulations.
But something odd happened on the road to “success.” According to a broad investigation carried out by experts at Stanford University, only 17 percent of charter schools were better than traditional public schools, according to standardized test results. 37 percent were worse in comparison, and 46 percent were virtually identical.
Professor Ravitch argues that the great debate surrounding education is now between those who “believe that public education is not only a fundamental right but a vital public service, […] and those who believe that the private sector is always superior to the public sector.”
(Taken from ARGENPRESS, edited by S. Carter, translated by J. Rudolf)
First, some audio, wherein Cynthia McKinney describes what it’s like to be in a city that is under heavy US/NATO bombing (she said she counted 89 explosions yesterday!)
Libyan rebels guard Black Libyans accused of supporting Qaddafi
Former Congresswoman McKinney describes, among other matters, how the racist CIA-backed Libyan rebels are targeting and killing Black Libyans in particular for supporting Muammar Qaddafi.
Wayne Madsen gives further deatils of the bombardment in an excerpt from his blog at www.waynemadsenreport.com –
TRIPOLI – Tonight we are seeing the heaviest NATO strikes in three days of being in Tripoli. Although military targets are being hit, it is a matter of time before we see the takeout of infrastructure targets as was done in Belgrade and later, in Baghdad. Libyan state TV is still on the air (I did an interview there last night that has resulted in strangers coming up to me and thanking me for reporting the truth about what is happening in Libya). Internet still works and the lights are still on. However, AT&T, T Mobile, and Verizon have severed all cell phone links with Libya. The world must know that the real criminals in Libya are the rebel leaders who are handing over their country to the Western powers, western oil companies, and the global bankers who have been chewing on the carcasses of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland and other nations and are now baring their fangs for a big feast on Libya.
Also from Wayne’s blog, a little historical context for US/NATO operations under the last Democratic president:
From Silvija (Diaspora)
The same western elites vultures started the dog fight and chewed up Yugoslavia, Wayne, as you know. American bombs feel different than regular war, don’t they?
Regular war is snipers, bullets, a bunch of mortars. American wars are a comprehensive mind-boggling bombing runs pounding everything to dust if you ever sit under such an event. I sat under 10 days of endless American bombs in 1995 when Clinton launched a covert giant war with massive air strikes already in 1995 – a year before the NATO war he fought and admitted fighting there – he still says he did not fight that particular war as he did not have sex with that woman and he never inhaled, either.
Civilian refugees killed by U.S. bombs in Kosovo
During that big 1995 war that was never even reported in US media, the US bombed the Serbs out of Croatia and Bosnia in while Yeltsin was in the hospital with a heart attack and could not help the Serbs and while the world MSM attention was focused on that week’s 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima event. Massive US bombing all around us – y’all got some big loud dramatic bombs, I saw and heard them and got sick of my grandma’s basement stay for so long. Same thing – western elites had converged on YU, got everybody fighting with implanted external rebels, plus real local hotheads funded and armed by the US, US arming and directing Croatia HV and Bosnia HVO, bin Laden also deployed to Sarajevo ‘burbs to stir that up, Soros doing psyops and the US bombing us overhead. They are efficient at breaking up countries. Same M.O. as in Libya now.
Video of Cynthia and her travel mates visiting victims of the bombing in Tripoli is running in a 40 minute loop at www.WBAIX.org
Now is the time to take action! Let’s take back our DPS, our community, our city and our state! Its imperative that everyone attend the DPS Board Advisory meeting on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. The meeting is at the Detroit Public Library(Main location) in the Friends Auditorium from 5:30pm – 7:45pm. We will get specific information on how to get rid of the evil, anti-human rights, and dictatorial discriminatory law. Please plan on attending and take action to reclaim our authority. Pass this message to every person you know.
God Blessings! Christal Bonner (313)350-2393
Former Congresswoman, Green Party leader Cynthia McKinney Photo taken June 2, 2011
(VOD ed.: Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is leading a “Dignity Delegation of independent journalists to report truthfully from the ground in Libya during its bombardment by US/NATO forces.)
Sent by Don DeBar
It is now 1:10 in the afternoon and as the daily life in Tripoli unfolds that includes teachers, staff, and children at school, shopkeepers working in their businesses, streetsweepers sweeping the streets, people moving to and fro in the cars, on bicycles, and on foot, Tripoli has thus far since around 11:00 up to now, received at least 29 bombs.
Funeral for bombing victims in Libya
Interestingly, the efforts of the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, and others to portray Libya claims on the bombings as “absurd” are patently false and are merely efforts to defend in the court of public opinion, the indefensible bombing of civilians going about their lives in a heavily populated area. The Washington Post headlined “Libya government fails to prove claims of NATO casualties” and the Los Angeles Times headline blared “Libya officials put a spin on a conflict.” These bombs and missiles are not falling in empty spaces: people are all over Tripoli going about their lives just as in any other major metropolitan city of about two million people.
Meanwhile, NATO has a spin machine of its own: NATO says it is making “significant progress” in protecting Libyan civilians. “What we did target was the military intelligence headquarters in downtown Tripoli,” the alliance said. I am currently with a delegation of former MP’s and professors from France who are here in Tripoli on a fact-finding mission. The program for today was to visit the camps of internally displaced persons in this part of the country. However, we are not able to complete our program while Tripoli is under attack. I will do my best to visit some of the areas bombed today when/if this attack lets up.
What were you doing today between 1:00 pm and now? The people of Tripoli endure the trauma of repeated bombings in their immediate environment.
See video of wounded civilians, taped in their rooms in El Khadra Hospital in Tripoli, at www.WBAIX.org
Sunday afternoon and evening (June 5) saw heavy NATO air strikes on Tripoli. A quiet Sunday night was punctuated by the sound of NATO jets flying over the city followed by loud explosions heard from WMR’s vantage point at a seaside hotel in central Tripoli.
Although NATO claims it is striking military targets, WMR has confirmed reports of explosions from NATO bombs in residential areas of Tripoli.
WMR has also been informed of recent top-level defections form the Libyan rebel coalition to the government of Muammar Qaddafi. A number of former Libyan opposition leaders, who were never affiliated with the armed wing of the rebel movement, say that diving Libya and seeing Libyan irregulars, NATO and U.S. bombs, and foreign mercenary forces killing Libyans was never a goal of the moderate opposition, which wanted change through dialogue and reform.
WMR has also been informed that along with 900 million Libyan dinars and $500.5 million in U.S. dollars being stolen by the Libyan rebels from the Libyan Central Bank in Benghazi, the rebels have also looted the bank accounts of private companies in eastern Libya, including from banks in Benghazi, Derna, Tobruk, and Beida.
There are also credible reports that French troops in Misrata, Libya, now occupied by rebel forces, have been overseeing the procurement of human organs from those killed in the fighting in the city. The past theft of human organs from conflict zones, such as Kosovo and the West Bank, has involved Israeli middlemen and traffickers.
Libyan civilians, defying NATO to strike Muammar Qaddafi’s Tripoli compound, Bab al-Azizia in the air war, code-named Operation Unified Protector, nightly converge at the site of Ronald Reagan’s 1986 bombing of the compound, to chant, “Allah, Muammar, Libya wa bas!” (God, Muammar, Libya Only!)
Cynthia McKinney and the Dignity delegation visit victims of US/NATO bombings at a hospital in Tripoli, Libya, June 4, 2011
WBAIX is running a series of interviews from El Khadra Hospital in Tripoli of a number of civilian victims of the US-led NATO bombing campaign being conducted against Libya. Go to www.WBAIX.org and keep going back – we will be receiving more video from Tripoli for the next few days and posting it there as it comes in.
Abdullah took a shrapnel wound in the abdomen after the NATO attack on Muammar Qaddafi's sprawling residential and military command compound at Bab al-Aziziya in downtown Tripoli. Abdullah's nearby house was damaged in the attack. His hospital window continues to be blown open and ceiling tiles fall on his bed from continued NATO attacks on Bab al-Aziziya, a kilometer and a half away. Abdullah, whose friend lost a hand in the NATO attack, says he is not able to sleep with the continuing NATO bombardment.
Muammar is from Zlitan, near rebel-held Misrata, east of Tripoli. His two legs were hit with DIME-like shrapnel while he and his friends were sitting in front of Muammar's grocery store.
WAYNE MADSEN: I witnessed a number of seriously injured Libyans and other Africans of all colors, many darker than or having the same skin tone as Barack Obama.
Another victim of the Pentagon’s “precision-guided” munitions. This 26-year old man from Tadjoura, west of Tripoli, remains unconscious after a NATO attack resulted in the roof of his house collapsing on him. The El Khadra hospital spokesman said the man is unaware that two of his family members were killed in the attack.
Libyan rebels using Western arms, looting Libyan Central Bank in Benghazi; Evidence of NATO war crimes
WAYNE MADSEN REPORTINGSunday, June 5, 2011
TRIPOLI, LIBYA – Shortly after Libya’s rebel Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) seized control of Benghazi, the second-largest Libyan city, they discovered the two keys for the cash vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in the city. However, because of control mechanisms, the cash vault required a third key held at the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli, the capital. The rebel movement brought in a professional safe cracker from the United Arab Emirates who successfully opened the cash vault safe. The rebels had their hands on $900 million in Libyan dinars and $500.5 million in U.S. dollars.
According to Central Bank officials in Tripoli, the rebels have now spent or siphoned to their offshore bank accounts the entire Benghazi Central Bank cash reserves. In addition, the rebel movement has squandered millions of euros provided by the Euriopean Union. The rebel’s theft of money is so great, the U.S. Treasury has refused to provide frozen Libyan central government funds to the rebel movement.
In addition to the Libyan dinars stolen from the Benghazi Central Bank, NATO countries have printed their own Libyan dinars abroad and have made the cash available to the rebels.
Under Qaddafi’s Libyan Oil Wealth program, every Libyan family received a monthly payment of 500 dinars, their share of Libya’s oil revenues. With the rebels controlling the finances of eastern Libya, families in the east are no longer receiving the oil wealth-sharing payments and the looting of the Central Bank in Benghazi has resulted in no money for civil servants and pensioners.
Prior to the NATO attack on Libya, Qaddafi was working with other African nations, including that of President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire, to establish an Africa-wide currency unit under the African Monetary Authority. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his French business friends saw Qaddafi’s move as threatening the collapsing CFA franc, a neo-colonial contrivance used by France to maintain control over their former colonies in Africa. With Gbagbo ousted largely by French troops and Qaddafi under attack by French-and Israeli-backed rebels, Sarkozy and his banker and business friends feel that the CFA franc is safe and plans for the African currency unit are aborted.
A portrait of Muammar Gaddafi hangs in a destroyed office of Libya's anti-corruption agency following Nato bombing. Photograph: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images
One of NATO’s first targets in Tripoli was the Office of Investigation of Corruption in Tripoli. Several of the Qaddafi ministers who defected to the rebels, including the former Justice, Interior, Planning and Economic Development, and Trade and Industry ministers, were being investigated for fraud by the Libyan government. The documents on corruption were backed up, however, and are now stored in a safe location.
The Libyan rebels, many of whom are Libyan mujaheddin Salafists from Afghanistan and Iraq, including many Libyans captured in Afghanistan and released from detention in Guantanamo, obtained brand new weapons not found in Libyan stockpiles at the outset of their rebellion. Other Salafists crossed into Libya from neghboring Darfur in Sudan.
Some of the Salafists are members of the Islamic Combatant Group while others have established the “Emirate of Derna” in the east that is under the control of a member of “Al Qaeda” named Sheikh Abdul-Hakim. The INTC has issued Hakim a false Libyan passport. The passport photo shows Hakim with a beard and the Qaddafi government prohibits passport photos showing beards.
U.S. diplomat Luke Reynolds was expelled from U.S. embassy in Tripoli in Nov. 2010
Many of the Islamic mujaheddin groups began their campaign to topple Qaddafi on Facebook. In November 2010, a political officer for the US embassy in Tripoli was expelled for espionage. WMR has learned the diplomat was a CIA agent who was on a liaison mission with a Libyan rebel “sleeper cell” in Ifrane, about 100 miles southwest of Tripoli, when he was caught by Libyan security. Thne CIA’s early involvement with the Libyan rebels, along with early support for the rebels by French and British intelligence, indicates that the Libyan rebellion was not based on events in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, but was designed to authorize the rebels to move when a favorable situation presented itself. The overthrow of the governments of Tunisia and Egypt provided just the right situation for the CIA and its French and British counterparts.
FNH USA markets this image as computer wallpaper
Many of the new weapons being used by the rebels are from the Belgian-based arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN), which has a CIA-connected subsidiary called FNH-USA. (VOD ed.: Click on http://www.fnhusa.com/mil/ to view “patriotic” video showing FNH-USA weapons with soldiers, courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Defense.) One FN rifle, the Fusil Automatique Léger (FAL), is the standard weapon being used by the rebels. The FAL, called the “Right Arm of the Free World” during the Cold War, only uses NATO standard rounds. The weapon was never used by the Libyan Army, which relied on Soviet weaponry. Claims by NATO that the rebels are using Libyan weapons captured from army arsenals and caches are, therefore, false.
Libyan rebels are also using U.S.-produced machine guns chambered for NATO rounds.
There are also reports that rebels have agreed to recognize Israel and allow Israel to maintain a 30-year lease for a military base in eastern Libya that would be used to check the Egyptian military should a future breakdown in Israeli-Egyptian relations occur.
NATO WAR CRIMES
In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the U.S.-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.
Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, murdered by NATO forces along with three of Gadhafi's tiny grandchildren
The NATO missile attack that killed Muammar Qaddafi’s son, Seif al Arab Qaddafi, on April 30, was an attempt to kill Muammar Qaddafi himself. This editor visited the devastated home where Seif was killed, along with his friend and three of Muammar Qaddafi’s grandchildren. The only reason why Muammar Qaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Qaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet. The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.
NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Qaddafi residence actually is owned by Qaddafi’s wife. The neighbors’ homes were also badly damaged in the U.S. air attack and are uninhabitable. Only a few hundred yards away from the Qaddafi compound sits the embassy of Cote d’Ivoire.
Obama laughing at White House Correspondents' Dinner while Gadhafi's son and grandchildren are murdered
The presence of a foosball table and swing set in the yard of the Qaddafi compound belies the charge by the Pentagon that the home was a military target. However, considering that Qaddafi was present in the compound during the attack, it is clear that President Obama violated international law and three Executive Orders signed by three past presidents — Ford, Carter, and Reagan — in trying to assassinate the Libyan head of state. In fact, while Obama’s order to kill Qaddafi was being carried out, the President of the United States was preparing to yuck it up with Washington’s illuminati and Hollywood’s glitterati at the White House Correspndents’ Dinner in Washington.
Obama’s order to kill Qaddafi is reminiscent of George W. Bush’s order to kill Sadaam Hussein at the outset of the U.S. war against Iraq, an assassination order that was also a violation of international and U.S. law.
Putting into context what occurred at Mrs. Qaddafi’s home and the aftermath, let one say that there is an unprovoked and surprise enemy missile attack on a secondary U.S. presidential residence, say Camp David. The world’s major media then claims that the attack was justified because the U.S. president was committing unsubstantiated war crimes, all reported from sketchy sources. A group of independent journalists and human rights activists drive to Camp David and are welcomed by a plainclothes member of the Secret Service’s Presidential Protective Division.
The Secret Service official then proceeds to show the delegation one of the bombed out bedrooms of the main residence and points out that one of the pulverized bedrooms is where the president’s daughter was killed in the attack. The delegation is then shown the First Lady’s singed handbag thrown several hundred feet away in the explosion. Although the President was taking a walk away from the main residence, the delegation is shown a windbreaker bearing the presidential seal lying on the couch of the destroyed living room. A room said contain military command and control systems is then found by the delegation to have a destroyed pool table and a shattered pinball machine. The attacking nation claims that the Camp David compound was a security threat. But the American people rally to support their president and his family after the attack. Now, you can begin to understand how the people of Libya feel after the U.S. attack on Mrs. Qaddafi’s house that killed her and her husband’s son and three grand children, along with a family friend.
Gadaffi is all we need
From: LizziesLiberation | Jun 4, 2011 | 116 views
Children at Djil Attahadi primary school in Tripoli, Libya sing “Allah, Moammar, Libya bas” (Allah, Moammar [Gadaffi], Libya – it’s all we need”.
The school was shaken to its foundations on Sat 28 May 2011 when nato bombed an adjacent complex which houses trainees of the civil militias. The bomb caused the school to shake, many windows were blown in by two bombs 30mins apart. The children were sitting their exams at the time and ran en masse out of the school in terror
Real danger of chemical weapons falling into hands of radical Islamists
TRIPOLI, LIBYA — Chemical weapons and chemical weapons precursor materials that were declared by Libya to the United Nations and United States but not yet destroyed are stored in warehouses at facilities adjacent to Libyan military bases now being attacked by U.S. and NATO forces. Libyan chemical and environmental engineers now warn that if NATO and the U.S. manage to force Libyan security forces to abandon their positions around the military bases and chemical weapons storage facilities, chemical weapons could end up in the hands of the radical Islamist Salafist forces that make up part of the Libyan rebel coalition force.
One Libyan chemical engineer was blunt in his warning about the chemical weapons and their current lack of security. He said, “the U.S. and U.N. took over responsibility for protecting these weapons, which include mustard gas canisters . . . now, the U.S. and U.N. are placing these weapons in danger of being captured by the “Al Qaeda” forces, being sold on the black market, or being used against the United States after the alliance between “Al Qaeda” and the United States terminates after a rebel takeover of Libya.” The engineer added, “the last time America allied itself with “Al Qaeda” in Afghanistan, they attacked you country. After Libya, they will attack you again.”
Chemical and environmental engineers gathered for a conference in Tripoli dealing with the environmental damage already witnessed as a result of the NATO military attack on Libya. As NATO bombs could be heard exploding in the Tripoli region, environmentalists said that the potential for greater environmental damage looms with the NATO attack.
One conference participant said, “In Brega, which is now under attack by NATO helicopters, a stray missile from one of those helicopters into ethylene storage tanks which are kept at minus 174 degrees Fahrenheit at a plastics factory in the city would result in an atomic bomb-like explosion that would destroy everything in a 10 kilometer radius.” The participant added that the environmental damage from such an explosion would be catastrophic. Another attendee said there has already been damage to feeding and watering areas used by migratory birds flying to Europe from Africa, including some rare species.
There will also be consequences from the use by NATO and U.S. forces of depleted uranium shells. One environmental conference participant revealed that depleted uranium has been used in the NATO attack. In fact, this reporter witnessed shrapnel wounds of patients in the intensive care unit at El Khadra Hospital in Tripoli that were consistent with the use of Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) missiles. DIME weapons are spin-offs from bunker buster technology and both rely on depleted uranium. DIMEs cause powerful localized explosions that are, ironically, intended to limit “collateral damage.” Wounds from DIME weapons, resulting from small shrapnel dispersion, are highly carcinogenic due to the use of uranium components. The discoloration of the wounds seen on the patients are consistent with DIME attacks on Libya. DIME weapons were a favorite weapon for the Israelis in their attack on Gaza.
DETROIT – The video above tells the tale of only one of the disastrous effects of the city’s loss of control of Cobo Hall, but it is a prime example of the vicious attack the corporate world has mounted on the predominantly Black residents and small business owners of this, the poorest city in the country.
Larry Simon with friend Maz (Facebook photo)
Larry and Sandy Simon’s family has owned Simon’s Pizza, located just behind the Joe Louis Statue in Cobo’s lobby, for 30 years. The Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA), created despite an uproar from the community during former Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr.’s short-lived administration, awarded Centerplate the concessions contract for all of Cobo in April, 2010.
The other Larry: Larry Alexander
“We were very impressed by the Centerplate team and their strategic approach to enhancing our brand and building our business,” said DRFCA CEO Larry Alexander at the time.
Centerplate is owned by a New York City-based private equity firm, Kohlberg & Company, LLC, worth $7 billion. Centerplate’s parent company is Volume Services America, headquartered either in Stamford Connecticut or Spartansburg, South Carolina according to which sources one references. Centerplate operates concessions, catering and merchandise services in over 130 sports facilities, convention centers and other entertainment venues in North America.
Former Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. announces Cobo Hall give-away in March, 2009, as Joe Louis turns his back in shame
“We always think that if you got some value and offerings to anybody, everybody should have the same equal opportunities out here as anybody else,” Larry Simon said at a rally to save his business June 7. “If you’re small, do you have the capital to move with us? We don’t know that, but whatever reason it is, we’re still confused as to why we were not renewed the contract.”
Drew Clora (l) with Oakland Co. Executive L. Brooks Patterson (center) and partner "Rick." A Patterson appointee sits on the Cobo Regional Authority Board. Wonder how Drew got the contracts?
Simon said he is looking into filing a lawsuit. His is the last Black-owned business in Cobo Hall. Since Centerplate took over, they have launched “Eatsville USA” on the Cobo concourse, according to a release. Eatsville includes the Detroit Beer Company and Lockhart’s BBQ among other businesses.
Drew Clora of Royal Oak owns The Detroit Beer Company and Lockhart’s BBQ as well as the Detroit Brewing Company and the Royal Oak Brewery. He says his BBQ restaurant is named after a small town in Texas.
Centerplate has also partnered with Andiamo to open the Vu Restaurant. Andiamo’s Dearborn workers just carried out a long and bitter strike against their employer, asking patrons to boycott the chain for unfair labor practices.
A Labor Notes article from June, 2010, noted, “Frightened wage-thieving owners shut down their restaurant when rowdy picketers from the Social Forum appeared. The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan (ROC) has mobilized for months against Andiamo, a white-tablecloth Italian place in Dearborn, over its overtime-stealing, racial-discriminating ways.”
VOD ED: The comment below by Keith Hines is also in the comments section of this post, but I certainly thought it deserved being part of the entire story.
HELLO WORLD! ***Me KEITH*** ***DIAMOND-II Productions***
THEY HAVE GONE TOO FAR NOW! THEY JUST HAD TO GO MESSING WITH “MY FAMILY”!!! I WAS ONE OF THE #1st DELIVERY BOYS BACK IN 1975. I WAS THE ONE WHO DROVE THE “1974 TRICKED OUT MUSTANG.”
WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR EACH OTHER AS A FAMILY, ALL THE WAY BACK TO “St CLAIR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL” ON THE EAST SIDE OF DETROIT IN THE 60s.
THIS “COBO BATTLE” GOES BEYOND THE YOUR IMAGINATIONS AND WE HAVE TO “FIGHT THEM WITH OUR EDUCATION AND HISTORY BOOKS”.
1st MAYOR COBO WHO WAS A REPUBLICAN WHO RAN THE CITY OF DETROIT DURING ONE OF THE WORST TIMES IN HISTORY FOR THE AFRICAN AMERICANS AND PEOPLE OF ANY RACE BELOW A CERTAIN INCOME IN THE CITY OF DETROIT.
“THE DETROIT PLAN” WAS MADE PUBLIC ON NOVEMBER 18, 1946 BY “MAYOR EDWARD J. JEFFERIES, Jr.” AND “MAYOR COBO”(a republican) TOOK OFFICE IN THE FALL 1949.
“THE COBO ADMINISTRATION” WAS IN PLACE IN 1949 AND ” THE DISLOCATION WITHOUT RELOCATION POLICIES” A CLEAR AND DEFIANT ACTION DISPLAYING AND USING “THE COLOR OF LAW” IN A “CONCERTED ACTION” AGAINST “DETROIT’S CITIZENS” CAME FROM HIS OFFICE AND DEFYING THE “FEDERAL HOUSING ACT OF 1948″ WHICH WAS SIGNED BY “HARRY S. TRUMAN” ON JULY 15,1949 WHICH SQUARELY “PLACED A DUTY ON THE CITY TO PROVIDE “ACCOMMODATIONS” FOR RESIDENTS BEFORE EVICTING THEM”.
MAYOR COBO WAS QUOTED AS SAYING IN A RALLY TO THOSE CITIZENS PROTESTING EVICTIONS…“WE DON’T WANT THEM HERE” !!??
THE PROJECT WAS “LAFAYETTE PARK” AND THE I-75 FREEWAY.
THANKS TO “WALTER REUTHER” “PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS” WHICH DONATED $10,000.00 TO HELP FORM “A CITIZEN’S COMMITTEE” TO HELP THE DISPLACED RESIDENTS. OF COURSE “MAYOR COBO” DIDN’T LIKE THIS AND FOUGHT THE “UNITED AUTO WORKERS UNION” EVERY INCH OF THE WAY WHO MADE THEM INCLUDE IN THE NEW PLAN “AFFORDABLE HOUSING” IN THE “LAFAYETTE PARK PLAN”!!
WHEN THE “CITY OF DETROIT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT” APPROVED THE PLANS FOR THE “COBO HALL EXPANSION PROJECT” THEN MAYOR “MAYOR COLEMAN YOUNG” MADE THEM INCLUDE “SIMONS PIZZA”/PATS PIZZA IN THE PLANS AND THE CONSTRUCTION WAS COMPLETED WITH THEM INCLUDED “AS SHOWN” IN THE BLUEPRINTS!!
THINGS HAVE NOT CHANGED MUCH HAVE THEY???
WHY DO THEY WANT “COBO”?? WHY NOT!! IT WAS NAMED AFTER “MAYOR COBO” ONE OF “THEIR GREATEST HEROES”??? “MAYOR COBO”
THIS INFORMATION WAS OBTAINED FROM A BOOK CALLED
“DETROIT PERSPECTIVES” *Crossroads and Turning Points* Published In 1991
WRITTEN BY “WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS” Edited By “WILMA WOOD HENDERSON.”
“I” STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT “ALL DETROITERS” ESPECIALLY “OUR NEWLY ELECTED OFFICIALS OBTAIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK AND ANOTHER BOOK CALLED “BARRON’S LAW DICTIONARY”
SO THAT WE CAN COMMUNICATE OUR VIEWS AND OPINION’S ON A LEVEL THAT CAN HOLD “THE COURTS” “LIABLE” OF “LEGAL DETRIMENT” AND “A DISPLAY OF PREJUDICE” BY NOT MAINTAINING “THE LEGAL CONSIDERATION” GRANTED IN A “PROMISE” SUPPORTED BY “LEGAL DOCUMENTATION” AS FILED WITH “THE CITY OF DETROIT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT” IN “THE PLANNING AND COMPLETION” OF “THE COBO EXPANSION PROJECT” WHICH “INCLUDED AS “TENANT” “SIMONES/PATS PIZZA” TO FUNCTION, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE THEIR BUSINESS IN THE LOCATION “AS WRITTEN/DRAFTED” IN “THE FINAL APPROVED PLANS/DRAWINGS” WITH “THE ASSOCIATION” ACTING WITH AN “ABUSE OF PROCESS” TO “THE TENANT”, “SIMON’S PIZZA” WHO HAVE A “RIGHT OF TENANCY” AND ARE “NOT AGREEING” TO ANY ALTERATION OF “THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT” MADE WITH THE CITY OF DETROIT.”
“THE NEW AUTHORITIES” BY FUNCTIONING “NUISANCE PER SE” ALSO VIOLATE “THE RIGHTS OF THE TENANTS” BY NOT EVEN PROVIDING AN “OFFER OF APPRECIATION” TO THE TENANT, SO DEFYING “”THE “RIGHT” AS GRANTED BY “THE COURTS” “” IN “THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION” (Art. VI, #2) AND CLEARLY DEFYING WHAT IS KNOWN IN THE COURT AS “SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND” WITH “THE CITY OF DETROIT” AS HAVING “OWNERSHIP” OF “COBO” AS AN “ESTATE OWNED BY THE CITY OF DETROIT” AND “THE CITY OF DETROIT” IS “THE ACTUAL AUTHORITY” OF “THE REAL PROPERTY” “COBO HALL”!!
“I” HOPE THIS HELPS??
THE INDIANS WHO ONCE LIVED ON THE LAND WE NOW OCCUPY TRUSTINGLY, MAINLY SUPPORTED BY “THE NEW YOUNG INDIAN CHIEFS” SIGNED WHAT THEY BELIEVED WAS A “20-YEAR RENEWABLE LAND CONCRACT” ONLY TO HAVE ARTICLE #4 “AMENDED” LATER TO A 5-YEAR GET OUT OF TOWN LAND GRAB THAT COULDN’T BE CONTESTED IN COURTS BECAUSE THE INDIANS WERE NOT CONSIDERED “AMERICANS” AND COULD NOT VOTE TO PROTEST ????
INTERVIEW WITH CYNTHIA MCKINNEY ON STATE TV, SENT BY DON DEBAR OF DIGNITY DELEGATION CURRENTLY ON GROUND IN LIBYA
WAYNE MADSEN REPORTS FROM LIBYA
Saturday, June 4, 2011
PHOTO – Mostly black African refugees, who fled Libya after US allied rebels committed war crimes against them because of their skin color, in sprawling refugee camps on the Tunisian side of the border.
June 4-5, 2011 — TRIPOLI, LIBYA. WMR Exclusive.
Western Libya portrait is not what is being painted by the Western media
Western media reports continue to indicate that Libyan rebels trying to oust Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power, backed by daily NATO air strikes, are gaining ground in western Libya. During a six-hour drive from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this reporter saw no signs of Libyan rebel successes in western Libya. In fact, I witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main Tunisia-Tripoli highway in a town about one and a half hours west of Tripoli.
The green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiryah not only adorn flag poles in towns from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, but a number of private residences are flying the green flag from their rooftops, on flag poles, and even from outside of top floor windows in medium size and small towns alike along the main highway.
There are some telltale signs of previous fighting in the western part of the country — bullet holes in the walls of some buildings and even some more extensive structural damage — but there are no signs that the rebels, backed by the United States, NATO, and the European Union, have any substantial support in western Libya.
The one major sign of the Libyan civil war lies not in western Libya but across the Tunisian border where several refugee tent cities have been set up to accommodate thousands of refugees, most of them black African guest workers from sub-Sahara and Sahel nations who were set upon by rebels who said the workers were “mercenaries”brought to Libya by Qaddafi to fight on his behalf. In fact, there is a strong anti-black racialist element within the Libyan rebel movement that used the mercenary meme to justify heinous war crimes by rebel units against blacks from other African nations, as well as native Libyan blacks.
While many of the refugee camps on the Tunisian side of the Libyan frontier are sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, one is funded by the United Arab Emirates, one of the nations participating in President Obama’s “coalition of the willing” that is waging a war on behalf of the Libyan rebels. From our hotel on the Mediterranean coast, we expect to see and hear the attacks conducted against military and some civilian targets a further few miles inland in downtown Tripoli.
The EU and NATO sanctions on Libya are being severely felt by Libya’s civilians. Petrol stations are rationing gasoline and long lines of cars sit waiting for gasoline to be delivered to the pumps. The NATO, EU, and U.S. policy of “collective punishment” of western Libya’s civilian population is being compares to Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, many Libyans believe that Obama’s crippling sanctions on western Libya were crafted by Israel’s lobby in Washington, which pressured the Obama administration into adopting them.
NATO has conducted nightly air strikes against western Libya, including downtown Tripoli, since March 19. The attacks begin around 12 midnight local time and at the time of this report we are expecting another NATO bombing of Tripoli in a little less than an hour.
Please visit www.waynemadsenreport.com for more information from Wayne on Libya and other important issues:
Below: a really interesting, insightful and inspiring conversation between Sons of Malcolm’s Sukant Chandan and Libyan brother Faraj Jibreel on the evening of 02 June 2011 in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.…
VOD EDITOR: THE FOLLOWING REPORT FROM THE BBC REGARDING THE FIRST USE OF UK APACHE HELICOPTERS TO ATTACK LIBYA INDICATES THE LEVEL OF DANGER FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN MCKINNEY AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE DIGNITY DELEGATION ARE FACING. SUCH HELICOPTERS ARE CAPABLE OF PINPOINT ATTACKS. SEE LINKS FOLLOWING FROM LIZZIE COCKER WHO REPORTS THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF ATTACKS FROM GADHAFI’S FORCES ON CIVILIANS.
UK APACHE HELICOPTERS USED FOR FIRST TIME TO ATTACK LIBYA; BRITISH GOVT. OFFICIALS MEET WITH CIA-LED OPPOSITION FORCES
Apache pilot: “We’re pleased that it was mission success”
UK Apache attack helicopters have been used over Libya for the first time, Nato has confirmed.
They attacked and destroyed two military installations, a radar site and an armed checkpoint near Brega, the Captain of HMS Ocean told the BBC.
The Apaches are understood to have faced incoming fire.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Foreign Secretary William Hague has arrived in rebel-held Benghazi in eastern Libya.
He is due to hold talks with the head of Libya’s opposition National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdul Jalil, later.
(VOD editor: click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6334 to read Cynthia McKinney’s statement about Jalil’s direct connections to the CIA.)
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has also made the trip to Benghazi.
French Gazelle helicopters also took part in simultaneous attacks on different targets in Libya for the first time.
On Wednesday, Nato extended its mission in Libya by 90 days.
UK Apache attack helicopters are deploying from HMS Ocean
Major General Nick Pope, the chief of the defence staff’s strategic communications officer, said:”The Apaches were tasked with precision strikes against a regime radar installation and a military checkpoint, both located around Brega.
“Hellfire missiles and 30mm cannon were used to destroy the targets. The helicopters then returned safely to HMS Ocean.”
He said the targets had been “carefully and rigorously selected” and said intelligence about the positions of the Gaddafi forces had been improving “despite their efforts to conceal themselves”.
Two of the four Apaches on board HMS Ocean left under the cover of darkness. From the ship you can see the lights on Libya’s coast.
This was a mission that would signal an escalation in the bombing campaign. It would also come with added risks.
The Apaches fly lower and slower than other Nato warplanes – able to identify a wider range of targets, but also more vulnerable to attacks from the ground.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox added: “The attack helicopter is yet another potent and formidable aircraft type which has now been added to the Nato forces engaged on this operation. Those who are still supporting Colonel Gaddafi would do well to realise that the best way to remove themselves from danger is to understand that their future lies with the Libyan people, not a discredited regime.”
The former head of the Army, Lord Dannatt, said the move has an “inevitable intensification”.
“If you pick up the words from when President Obama was visiting, what we’ve heard the prime minister say, we don’t want to let this thing linger on any more than we absolutely have to.
“The mission under UNHCR 1973 is quite clear, it’s to protect people but of course the implied task, and let’s be absolutely open and honest about it, is the removal of Colonel Gaddafi.”
Missile risk
The decision to send four British Apache helicopters to Libya was made by Prime Minister David Cameron on 27 May.
Their deployment via HMS Ocean means there should be less chance of civilian casualties in operations that previously relied on the use of Tornado and Typhoon aircraft.
But the Apaches operate at lower altitudes and could be targeted by Libyan forces loyal to Col Gaddafi, which still have access to thousands of surface-to-air missiles.
Labour MP Graham Allen claimed the introduction of Apaches was “mission creep” and said there needed to be a fresh debate in the House of Commons on Libya.
“The way out of this mess is not to keep cranking up the military hardware and having so-called ‘implied tasks’ added on against the express view of the House of Commons; what we need to do is figure out how we can get a political solution that will last for several generations in Libya rather than this adventure which has no prospect of coming to a close,” he said.
Nato intervened in Libya after the UN passed a resolution for the protection of civilians, amid a two-month revolt inspired by other uprisings in the Arab world.
It has intensified raids in recent weeks with attacks on command-and-control structures in the capital Tripoli.
The intervention was initially led by France, Britain and the US until 31 March – when Nato took over. It was given an initial 90 days, which would have run out on 27 June.
On Wednesday, UN investigators accused government forces in Libya of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Rights experts said they had found evidence of crimes including murder and torture, in a pattern suggesting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was behind them.
The UN mission also said opposition forces were guilty of abuses that would constitute war crimes, although they were not so numerous.
Click on the link below to view French video on Apache attacks.
Don DeBar has also sent the following materials from the last several weeks, received from Lizzie Cocker, journalist and activist also on the ground in Libya:
Tax Day protest outside main Detroit post office April 18, 2011
Is There An Answer to the Deficit Dilemma?
By Mark Brenner
June 3, 2011
Labor Notes
While today’s report of nonexistent job growth has the media in a tizzy, working people didn’t need the latest temperature check to tell them the economy’s still flat-lining.
Protest in Albany, New York
But somehow the debate in Congress still isn’t about how we’re going to get people back to work or bring homeowners back above the water line. Beltway politicians from both sides of the aisle can’t stop talking about government deficits and the national debt.
Do these twin issues actually threaten our national well-being? There’s a two-part answer: No, not much, compared with the wailing in Washington. Yes, but both are fixable if Congress would go where the money is.
Leading the charge is Representative Paul Ryan, who wants to cut $4.5 trillion in government programs over the next decade. His “Path to Prosperity” claims the sky is falling and that unchecked government spending is the problem. Ryan’s solution is to privatize Medicare and have the poor take the brunt of the cuts, about two-thirds in total.
Paul Ryan
Most economists and policy analysts agree Ryan’s numbers don’t add up. But despite the fuzzy math, Ryan’s looking less like Chicken Little and more like trickster Brer Rabbit, having helped Republicans extract $38 billion in budget cuts last month.
The fiscal tug-of-war nearly forced a federal government shutdown. What’s in store once 2012 electioneering kicks into high gear could be even worse.
YES, IT’S BIG
There is no question federal deficits in recent years have been high by historical standards—about 10 percent of total economic activity (Gross Domestic Product, or GDP). In the 35 years prior to the financial meltdown, deficits averaged about 2.5 percent of GDP.
But since the 2008 economic collapse, government has been running up red ink. Together these annual deficits have added to the national debt, which will top $10 trillion by year’s end.
Is the problem as bad as Ryan and others claim?
Bush tax cuts--relief for all Americans who are white and wealthy
Not really, because the main drivers of today’s deficits are temporary. They include:
lower tax revenues, owing to high unemployment and the extension of the Bush tax cuts
the money spent on stopping the 2008 financial freefall, first the bailouts and then the stimulus package
relief for those left in the recession’s wake, including unemployment insurance and food stamps
the spiraling war budget (this one doesn’t look temporary).
The Congressional Budget Office says the annual deficit will drop considerably as the economy recovers, to average about 3.3 percent of GDP by 2013. This is lower than Reagan’s deficits, which averaged 4.2 percent.
IS THE U.S. BROKE?
Steady deficits, even small ones, can build up to create large-scale debt. Conservatives point to Greece and warn of eventual U.S. default.
Nearly 60 percent of U.S. taxes go to the military budget
But if they were serious about avoiding the apocalyptic scenarios they predict, they’d acknowledge how we got here: Bush’s tax cuts and war spending, which wiped out the surplus the country had 10 years ago.
Pull back from those expenses and the national budget looks a lot prettier.
Instead, conservatives are pushing to undo the paltry financial regulations put in place last year to avoid another meltdown and locking in the Bush tax cuts that mostly benefit the richest 1 percent.
It’s easy to believe the nation is broke when most state and local governments are in a hole.
But the country isn’t broke. Tax policies allow some people to hoard huge wealth—which would be available to fund schools, firefighters, and bridge repairs if politicians had the will to tax corporations and the rich.
Corporate profits 2010
Last year corporate profits exploded, jumping 29 percent to $1.65 trillion. CEO salaries saw a similar bounce, and Wall Street executives raked in $21 billion in bonuses, the fifth-highest payout ever. Individual taxes, particularly on the wealthy, are lower than they’ve been in 60 years.
The GAO, the federal auditing agency, said recently that two out of every three corporations are paying zero federal income taxes, and most of the Fortune 500 pays a lower proportion of their earnings in federal taxes than working people.
Just enough wealth is lavished on politicians to ensure those fortunes stay in corporate coffers and billionaires’ bank accounts. That’s why most states are choosing draconian cuts.
State governments are forbidden by law to run deficits, they’re abandoned by Washington, and they’ve shouldered the recession’s costs, like unemployment insurance and services for 25 million people who can’t find work (or enough of it). Most say there’s no alternative but to cut.
United for Oregon March 6/7/09 Photo from SEIU Local 503
Oregon proved states can go the other way: a 2010 referendum backed by a union-community alliance saved essential services by increasing taxes on corporations and the top 3 percent of earners. Oregon’s richest angrily vowed to move out of state, but surveys show they’ve stayed put.
‘ENTITLEMENTS’
It’s true that both Social Security and Medicare project long-term financial shortfalls. But Washington’s hysteria is misplaced.
We could largely eliminate Social Security’s problems by scrapping the cap which lets income over $106,800 go untaxed by Social Security.
Medicare is indeed extremely expensive, and getting more so. But that’s because of double-digit cost increases in the overall health care system. Medicare is sideswiped by that, even though its administrative costs are a fraction of the costs of for-profit insurance.
Medicare for ALL: HR 676
Medicare’s problem is that government controls too little of the health care system. If Medicare covered everyone, the government could save big time by cutting out the bloated insurance industry and negotiating lower costs for drugs and care.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration, along with most of Congress, showed no appetite for confronting insurers, for-profit medical chains, and pharmaceutical companies in the 2009 health care reform debate. Imagine where we’d be if they had.
De’Jaun Correia, a slender 13-year-old with thick corn-rows in his hair, sat down next to his uncle Troy Davis in the corner of the room. Troy described to De’Jaun what to expect now that he was approaching adolescence. “Your body’s gonna be changing…. Women, they go through things, and us guys, we go through things, too. The same thing happened to me when I was a young boy growing up.”
Troy and De'Jaun
De’Jaun listened intently as his uncle explained the birds and the bees. It wasn’t the first time De’Jaun and Troy had had an intimate one on one. De’Jaun was more comfortable talking to his uncle, a sturdily built man with warm brown eyes, than anyone else.
Martina Davis-Correia, De’Jaun’s mother and Troy’s older sister, encouraged the close relationship that Troy had with her son. Troy helped Martina chastise De’Jaun if he got in trouble at school. “You don’t go to school to talk in class, you go to school to learn!” Troy would scold the boy. And then, once he felt sure that De’Jaun got the message, Troy grew gentle. “Now come here, and give me a hug.” Nephew and uncle embraced.
“He gets his discipline [from Troy],” Martina said. “But then he gets his love to back it up.”
Those uncle-and-nephew exchanges could be deemed ordinary, if not for their setting. The interactions took place in a narrow concrete room with locks and bars on its only door in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, where Troy Davis is a prisoner on death row. When De’Juan was still little, death-row inmates and their visitors could be in the visiting room together; contact visits were taken away a year and a half ago. Now, De’Jaun receives his uncle’s counsel through phones mounted on either side of a plexiglass window.
Troy and De'Jaun as he grew up
Davis is on death row for the 1989 murder of white Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. On Aug. 19, MacPhail was gunned down while rushing to the rescue of a homeless man being pistol-whipped in the parking lot of a Greyhound bus station. The day after the murder, a man named Sylvester “Red” Coles told the police that Troy Davis was the shooter. Davis was arrested and was convicted in 1991, primarily on the basis of eye-witness testimony.
There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime. The murder weapon was never recovered. Yet, Davis was sentenced to death. He has remained on death row for 20 years, despite the fact that the case against him has completely unraveled. He now awaits an execution date, which could be set any moment, having had his final appeal rejected by the Supreme Court.
Major human rights and civil liberty groups, including the NAACP, Amnesty International, and the ACLU, have taken up Davis’s case, and individuals ranging from President Jimmy Carter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu have spoken up on his behalf.
Davis’s case has become an emblem for much of what is problematic about a capital punishment system that is riddled with racism, economic disparity and error. Public capital defenders do not have the resources to properly investigate or litigate their overburdened case loads. Those with the means to hire decent legal representation are unlikely to end up on death row. Over 130 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973, demonstrating just how many innocent people are convicted and sentenced to death.
Meanwhile, there’s considerable evidence of a racial imbalance in who the government decides to kill. According to a 2001 study from the University of North Carolina, a defendant whose victim was white was 3.5 times as likely to receive the death penalty in North Carolina than if the victim were non-white. A 2005 study in California found the defendant of a white victim three times as likely to be penalized by death. Growing realizations of these problems have led more and more states to question their death penalty policies. Earlier this year, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish capital punishment.
Even pro-death penalty advocates, such as former FBI director and federal judge William Sessions and former Republican Congressman from Georgia Bob Barr, have spoken out against executing Davis, citing “crucial unanswered questions” (Sessions) and a lack of the requisite fairness and accuracy required to apply the death penalty (Barr).
The “crucial, unanswered questions” include the fact that seven of the nine non-police witnesses later recanted or changed their testimonies, many stating that police coercion and intimidation led to their initial implication of Davis. Continue reading →
