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

Greg Thrasher

By Greg Thrasher

Of  late in the terrain of social commentary there has been a resurgence of the topic of internal racial themes within Black America. One of the themes has been the discussion of class and Black personalities like the Uncle Tom, a/k/a the modern day Black Apologist.

Any candid discourse and examination of race within the Black community must be viewed from the platform of minority and majority themes. Black Americans are a distinct cultural minority collective that suffered through one of America’s domestic holocausts, in a white nation.

The legacy of white supremacy in America has been lethal it stings and wounds even in the post racial era of an Obama’s tenure in the white house. The pathology of racism not only is lethal for those who are victimized by it, but this evil also causes damages to those who authored white privilege and white supremacy.

For the Black folks who are stained and contaminated with white racism it produces a number of outcomes and side effects:  hopelessness, anger, despair, militancy and the like. The drama of personalities like the Uncle Tom are not new in the Black community.

One of the incarnations of a community subject to the pathology of white racism in our nation is the character of an Uncle Tom, a person whose self esteem is only measured by his acceptance and validation from whites. Despite the conventional themes about the negative portrayal of Uncle Toms. In our history the Uncle Tom was not always a terrible figure. People ignore how talented they were in navigating and leveraging their race status during the plantation and post slavery eras in America.

These personalities in very oppressive situations produced effective outcomes from elevated employment opportunities on the plantation to creative tactics in avoiding and deflecting the wrath from racist whites. The Uncle Tom was a living exercise, a role model in how to manage the lethal system of slavery while creating effective strategies to excel in this inhumane and oppressive paradigm.

Some Uncle Toms were/are tragic personalities, but they would not exist unless there was white supremacy and the pathology of white privilege in America. The intra-cultural clash that exists in many Black communities, families, fraternities, organizations, churches and related groups is linked to the institution of slavery in America. This evil complex altered and influenced the very essence of family and social life in America for Black folks. All the words, studies, classes, novels, lectures will never be able to comprehend or give a full measure to the impact of this holocaust on Black Americans.

Black self worth and community values and mores still suffer from the disease of slavery. It is not an excuse or a plea of victimhood to understand and recognize this truth. Black victimhood, class envy, petty jealousy, twisted rage and even some degree of Black crime, parenting, goal shaping, psychosis, all of these relations and conditions have origins in the creation of an America that viewed Black folks as inferior beings not worthy of basic humanity.

The saga of the Black Uncle Tom shares a shelf life with White racism in our nation; it is a pathological scar, obstacle and part of the cultural DNA that still wounds and inflicts many even in the post racial era of America

Who killed Brian Huff?

Jason Gibson early in trial

EARLIER ARRESTS IN UNDER PROTEST

GIBSON ON PHONE DURING 911 CALL

NEIGHBOR KEPT, DISASSEMBLED GUN

NO GSR EVIDENCE RE: GIBSON

VIDEOS APPEAR TO BE CUT OFF

By Diane Bukowski

 (Ed. note: an individual identifying themselves as a “good friend” of Jason Gibson’s commented on VOD’s first article on his trial, saying there is a “lot more” than the police version of the case, and signing off, “FREE JAY BIRD.”

Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway

DETROIT –  Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway allowed police officers involved in two prior arrests of Jason Gibson, in 2007 and 2009, to testify May 15 during his ongoing trial for multiple counts in the death of Detroit police officer Brian Huff last May.

The officers’ testimony, particularly on the 2009 arrest, drastically contradicted reports of several eyewitnesses interviewed by VOD later. (See story above.) Gibson has never even been tried and convicted on charges related to that arrest, which the jury was never told.

Gibson jury has 6 African Americans out of 14

Gibson’s attorney Susan Reed strenuously objected on the record to the introduction of the testimony, claiming it would prejudice the jury. Reed also objected to Hathaway’s instructions to the jury about the testimony, saying they still favored the prosecution.

Hathaway told jurors, “You are about to hear evidence that will be introduced to show the defendant committed other acts for which he is not on trial. If you believe this evidence, you may only use it if it tends to show certain factors.”

Hathaway then read a prepared list to the jury, indicating the testimony must show: The defendant had reason to commit the crimes in the current case; that he knew what the  things found in his possession were; that he acted purposefully, that he used a plan or scheme he had used before, that the scheme shows a pattern of reacting aggressively to police officers by trying to disarm them and then attempting to flee, and that the defendant had a lack of fear and lack of mistake in the current case.

Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy is in charge of case

“You must not decide that the testimony shows the defendant is a bad person or likely to commit a crime,” Hathaway said. “You must not convict him because you think he is guilty of other acts.” 

Undercover Detroit police officers Thomas Rogers and Robert Skender then took the stand to testify about Gibson’s arrest on Nov. 13, 2009. 

Rogers is a tall, beefy  white officer with little hair on his head, and 12 years on the force.

He said officers were informed at roll call that day that a shooting had occurred at 9333 E. Jefferson earlier, and that they were given a physical and clothing description of the suspect.“I exited my scout car, I always say ‘police’ when I get out of my car,” Rogers said. “Jason Gibson looks in my direction and adjusted something in his waistband area, where you would carry a pistol.”

He said the two walked over to Gibson to conduct a pat-down, and that he felt what he thought was a gun.Mr. Gibson turned around and raised his right elbow,” Rogers said. “I immediately attempted to secure his right arm to prevent him from going for his weapon.”

He said he and Skender ended up in a “scuffle” with Gibson because he pulled the two of them onto the slippery grass and they fell on the ground. He said Gibson broke free and then began to flee westward on the sidewalk, but ran into two other officers who had arrived on the scene. He said Skender and the other two pursued Gibson as he ran back the other way.

Detroit Police Gang Squad members (Nat'l Geographic photo)

“All of us now had some part of the defendant and began to disarm him,” Rogers said. “We obtained a weapon on the sidewalk, it was a loaded 9 mm. Smith and Wesson handgun, semiautomatic.” (This was the same make as neighbor Paul Jameson’s gun during the Huff shooting.)

Rogers said he is 6’4” tall, and weighs 260 pounds, and estimated the other officers weighed 210 and 185 pounds

Skender, a white officer wearing a Black sweat top with fatigue pants, and carrying his pistol, then testified that the four officers involved, including Harold Lewis and Victor Hicks, were assigned to the Gang Squad.He contradicted Rogers’ testimony that the two first saw him from their car.

“Myself and Officer Rogers approached the east entrance, and the others approached the west entrance, then I observed the defendant walking towards me and my partner.”

Aerial view 9333 E. Jefferson

He corroborated Rogers’ testimony that the three got into a confrontation after Rogers tried to conduct a pat-down. He said he pulled his gun as Gibson started running towards Lewis and Hicks. He said they yelled “Stop, Police,” and Gibson ran into the middle of East Jefferson, then back toward Rogers.

“One of the officers pushed him, and he fell, and the gun came out of his waistband,” Skender said.

On cross exam of both officers, Reed asked if Gibson ever pointed the gun at the officers or attempted to shoot them, and they said no, he only attempted to run away. Gibson has contended that Gibson’s previous arrests show that he does not confront officers, but flees when stopped.

Officer Jesus Colons, a big, broadly built Latino officer with 11 years on the force, and testified about an Oct. 24, 2007 arrest of Gibson. He said he was working the Northeast “Special Ops” unit in plainclothes while his partner Scott Pessina (sp?) was in full uniform.

1525 Belvidere

He said he arrested Gibson at 1278 McClellan, behind the 9333 E. Jefferson address, after chasing him from 1525 Belvidere.

“We were basically driving around because that’s a known narcotics area,” Colon said. “We observed a lady coming from the rear exit on Belvidere, then heard a loud crash and boom, and [Gibson] ran by me . . . . I chased him on foot and caught him. Several times I screamed out ‘Police,’ like I did the moment I started chasing him.”

Asst. Pros. Thomas Trzcinski

He said Gibson then confronted him and told him several times that he could get Colon’s gun, then reached for it, but that the officers subdued him.

Reed objected to Colon’s testimony that the Belvidere address was a vacant, boarded-up building where they later found narcotics, but Hathaway overruled her objection.

Earlier that day, Officers Anthony Byrd and Sgt. Frank Senter took the stand. Byrd testified that he confiscated Officer Bryan Glover’s gun from him, and gave it to Sgt. Eddie Croxton. He said “I know I took his weapon but I don’t recall if I took the magazine.” Senter was even vaguer, saying he confiscated a fellow officer’s weapon but didn’t write up a report on the matter. 

FBI Agent Todd Reineck alos took the stand May 15. He said he was assigned to look for the “primary” suspect, Gibson, beginning at 9:15 a.m. that day. Strangely, Gibson had already been shot by Detroit police, and in custody for at least five hours prior to Reineck’s search. Reineck said he went to two locations, one on Somerset and one on Jane, but did not locate Gibson there.

Dwayne Little, previous owner of the building at 20263-65 Schoenherr, testified that he had been foreclosed on and no longer owned the property. A Dwayne Dorian Little, Jr. of Detroit is listed in criminal records as having served time in prison for a felony firearms offense, and probation for delivery and manufacture of controlled substances, including marijuana.

Dwayne Little said he visited the property infrequently while he owned it and did not have anything to do with marijuana allegedly found in the property.

Detroit News reporter George Hunter, who covered the trial the following two days, reported in his published article (http://detnews.com/article/20110317/METRO/103170490/Cell-phone-calls-point-to-more-suspects-in-Detroit-cop’s-slaying#ixzz1GydDdJ00) that testimony regarding nine cell phone calls between Gibson and a Devi Reed, who Trzcinski said was also involved in the case as the get-away driver, was introduced.

Trzcinski said Smith was inside the duplex with Gibson and jumped out the back upstairs window, and that a third person may have been involved as well. On Mar. 15,  Deandre Paymond, who is currently in custody at Jackson Prison, testified he could not recall the content of a statement he gave police after he was picked up near the residence that night, so his statement was not introduced into evidence.

Hunter reported, “Phone records show Gibson and Smith exchanged nine calls that night, including a two-minute conversation at 3:38 a.m. — the same time next-door neighbor Danielle Jameson dialed 911 to report hearing shots fired, although she later testified she wasn’t sure whether she heard shots.”

Hunter also reported that Sgt. Glynn Davis testified that Gibson’s fingerprint was found on a gray plastic bin taken into evidence 11 days after the incident. According to the News, Davis said that on the day of the incident, “The discussion was whether it should it be confiscated, but I decided not to. I didn’t think there’d be fingerprints on it because of the surface.”

However, an evidence technician testified earlier in the trial that if the bin had been taken to the forensics lab, they could have recovered fingerprints through a method other than dusting. The crime scene was left completely open to trespass during the intervening 11 days.

On Mar. 18, Officer Alan Johnson testified. He said he was on the scene when the screen door to the house opened after Huff was shot, and that he saw multiple muzzle flashes, but could not identify anyone as the person exiting the house.

He said he provided cover for “officers dragging Huff out of the house.” He testified that Jameson was present, and that he walked Jameson back to his own house, telling him, “I don’t want people to see you helping the police because of retaliation.”

On cross exam, he said Jameson had his gun with him, a .45 caliber Smith and Wesson, and that Jameson left it on the counter in the kitchen. Johnson did not confiscate the weapon. Earlier testimony was that Jameson “disassembled” the weapon and gave it to an officer who had cordoned off the area. The only other .45 caliber weapon involved in the shoot-out was a Ruger with its serial number shaved off, which Gibson was alleged to have carried.

Both guns, which strongly resembled each other, were shown to the jury in earlier proceedings.

No testimony has been entered to date indicating that Gibson was tested for gunshot residue on his hands, only testimony that there was none on the clothes that were cut off him. No testimony has been entered showing Gibson’s fingerprints on the two gallon bags of marijuana that were entered into evidence either.

The rest of the half-day session Mar. 18 was spent showing blurry videos and stills taken from several cameras around the Jameson house during the events. One camera was located under the awning on the front porch of the Jameson home, and one was mounted high on the garage in back. That camera would have had a full view of proceedings testified to in the trial regarding Gibson’s arrest, handcuffing to a fence, and sequestering of a weapon allegedly near his head by three officers.

The video forensics technician who presented the evidence said the tapes had not been altered. However, the only individual seen in them is Paul Jameson himself, as he leaves the house out of the side door to check out the back of the house next door, then takes a position on the porch with his gun drawn as what are presumed to be muzzle flashes show up on the tape.

Jameson’s wife Danielle told the Detroit News earlier that officers had spent many hours after the shooting in their basement reviewing the tapes from the cameras. It is absolutely unclear why the tapes, particularly those from the camera mounted on the garage, appear to cut off after the early events involving Jameson’s movements.

Judge Hathaway said the trial would resume Tues. March 22, with closing arguments expected. She said she was reserving Monday March 21 for in-chambers meetings with both attorneys. It in unclear whether Gibson’s attorney Susan Reed plans to present a defense case, or simply rely on contradictions in the prosecution’s case, presuming the jury will see they show reasonable doubt.

Jason Gibson, nicknamed "Bird"

Exclusive VOD interview

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – Exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses to the arrest of Jason Gibson in 2009, which police testified about Mar. 18, during his trial for the murder of Officer Brian Huff last year, completely contradict the officers’ testimony.

Long-time friends of his also contradict the portrayal by the officers and the daily media of Gibson as a vicious, violent animal who could only be restrained by three beefy cops.

“My family, my sister, my children, they love Bird,” said Lawana Murphy. “He is a lovable person. He really loves his mom and dad, and looks after his two-year-old daughter Majaisia. He looked out for everybody. I never heard him say ‘no’ to anyone’s request for help, and if he did, he would come back later to help. I still miss him.”

Others in the group who knew “Bird,” his nickname, for years, agreed.

Colony Arms Apartments, site of Jason Gibson's 2009 arrest, which has not resulted in a trial or conviction

“He is a cool guy, a good guy who would keep you laughing,” said one friend. “He had your back 100 percent. If you were hungry, he got you food. If he had a quarter, he would give you 15 cents and keep a dime for himself. He liked to rap, he was more like a poet. He had a big heart.”

Everyone present at the interview said they had never seen “Bird” act violent towards anyone, including police. (The names of the young men in the interview are being withheld to protect them from retaliation.)

“The reason the cops say he’s violent is because he’s a big person,” said another young man. “But he wouldn’t fight. He wouldn’t even argue with his friends, he wouldn’t get upset about anything.”

While tall and broad-shouldered, Gibson is actually medium-built, unlike many of the cops who testified against him.

Murphy said, “He doesn’t show his feelings, he’s always calm.” Her portrayal of Gibson was identical to his demeanor in court, polite, reserved and quiet, showing no reaction to negative testimony by the officers. When he sees his mother and father, who have been there every day of the first three weeks of his trial, he smiles slightly and appears appreciative of their presence.

Gibson was arrested in front of an apartment building at 9333 E. Jefferson in November of 2009. Four officers testified about the arrest Mar. 18 over the objections of Gibson’s attorney, Susan Reed. The jury was never even told that Gibson has not been tried, let alone convicted, in that case.

(See following story for account of trial during the week of Mar. 17, and VOD article at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=2477   for exclusive story on the November hearing during which Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway allowed Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Trzcinski to present testimony regarding “prior acts.”)

Several of those present during the interview witnessed the arrest in November, 2009. They said practically everyone in the building came out while it was happening. Many younger individuals live there with their families, including small children. Gibson lived there as well.

Rodney King beating in LA; police in Jason Gibson's trial have used the same arguments against him that LA police used against King, portraying him as a brute that it took numerous cops to subdue.

“There were only two officers at first,” one witness said. “They were in plainclothes, they didn’t say ‘police,’ they didn’t show their badges. They were dressed in all black. He was walking down the sidewalk and they grabbed him from behind and he turned around. They tackled him and started beating him up. Then police cars started coming from everywhere. Everybody came out of the building, and they pulled their guns out on us and told us to back up.”

Another witness said the cops threatened to shoot the bystanders.

“I never heard them read him his rights, they never do,” said the witness. “They beat him up real bad.”

Reed was charged with three counts of weapons possession in that case, which was before Judge Gray-Hathaway. Cops did not say they found weapons on his person, but found a gun on the ground. However, the arrest, while previously listed on the Michigan State Police ICHAT (Internet Criminal History Access Tool) report, is no longer on ICHAT.

A witness to an earlier arrest on Joann Street near Seven Mile told a similar story.

Joann and E. Seven Mile, Detroit

“On Bird’s way back from the store, there was a car riding down the street with no lights on,” he said. “A big white guy jumps out first. In my hood, I know that’s the police. But then a dude with a mask jumps out. Bird is yelling, ‘Call the police, they’re robbing me, they’re robbing me.’ The dude was beating him up. They kicked him for a while. They messed up his back; that’s why he walks with a slump now.”

He said the cops asked, “Well, why did he run? We gotta take him now because we put our hands on him.”

Another young man said, “The police department, especially the Ninth Precinct [now the Eastern District, where Huff was assigned] has been crooked for years.”

20263-65 Schoenherr

A resident of the Schoenherr neighborhood where Huff died, and a former high-ranking official in police administration have said it was well known that the duplex on Schoenherr was a police-operated drug house. The resident said it was known to be a “weight house” where police stored drugs for later sale, not a house that people frequented to buy drugs.

A well-known police drug scandal surfaced in the Fifth Precinct, now also part of the Eastern District, in 1999.

Children demand end to police brutality

“Six Detroit police officers were indicted on charges of robbing and beating people on the streets of their precinct and hoarding money, guns and drugs from illegal searches of suspected drug houses,’ reported the Times Wire. “The officers were charged with federal civil rights conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Three of the officers are also charged with taking bribes for protecting drug traffickers and possessing drugs and the equipment used to distribute them, such as scales for weighing. The six worked in the 5th Precinct, a hotbed of police corruption in a force rocked by scandal.”

The officers charged were Rodney Rice, Irvin Lamont Upshaw, Larone Cook, Mark Heath, Antonio Carlisli, and Christopher Cole. At last check, parts of the case are still pending

Students and others get ready to protest Bing’s state of the city address last year

 PART TWO: DPS KATRINA

By Diane Bukowski

On Sat. Mar. 12, at an unpublicized Board of Education finance committee meeting, DPS czar Robert Bobb announced the “DPS Renaissance Plan 2012.” It includes an option of converting 41 schools that were slated for closure this year under the revised Deficit Elimination Plan, into charters. Other options are dissolving DPS to pay off its debt and forming a new school district, and populating DPS 100 percent with charter schools.

The district said in a release that Renaissance 2012 is “a transformative plan to radically restructure academically-failing schools and significantly reduce operating costs by seeking proposals from local and national groups and charter school operators for 41 of the district’s 142 schools. These schools, including some high schools, currently enroll some 16,000 students and selected operators based on a competitive and rigorous RFP (Request for Proposals) process to operate the schools as public school academies [ed.—charter schools] with Detroit Public Schools as the authorizer.”

Robert Bobb with Chief Academic Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett

It added, “The plan supports the district’s Deficit Elimination Plan by reducing operating costs by $75-$99 million and represents a dramatic new approach to declining enrollment for the 2011-12 fiscal year,”

It does NOT say, however, that the loss of 16,000 students to private charter operators would mean the LOSS OF $121.6 MILLION to the district in state per-pupil aid (currently $7600 per student) in 2012. In its DEP, the district says planned cuts will save it a little over $114 million in 2012, and a total of $281.8 million from 2011-14. Depending on how many students remain in the district as schools close, more state per-pupil aid will be lost in 2013 and 2014.

Bobb’s announcement made national headlines, in the New York Times, the Atlanta Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

Teachers walked off the job in 2001 to protest Kilpatrick charter school bill

“We want to create a marketplace of schools,” Bobb told the Wall Street Journal. “It enables us to design a new DPS at a level that is sustainable given our current financial legacy deficit situation along with an opportunity to improve our cash flow.”

The WSJ noted, “Detroit already has a larger portion of its children enrolled in charter schools than any other major city except for New Orleans and Washington,” citing a study from the pro-charter Center for Education Reform. “Nationwide, about 1.7 million students attend more than 5,400 charters.”

DPS has already lost    in funding due to the massive incursion of charter schools to date.

Laid off DPS worker Ronald Gamble

Laid off DPS worker

DPS spokesman Steve Wasko additionally told the WSJ, “We shed all physical plant operations, maintenance, security, central overhead costs. Overall staffing are expected to be lower as well. Pension costs are a major reason for this.”

The Journal said DPS officials would not say how many teachers will be laid off or have to re-apply to the charters. In the last year, Bobb laid off thousands of custodians, engineers, maintenance workers, bus drivers, and public safety officers and replaced them with private companies.

Protest v. Sodexo at U of Pittsburg

During a Sodexho “job fair” for the DPS workers last month, the company vetted applicants through credit checks, disciplinary records, drug testing, criminal checks and other means. They were not allowed union representation during the application process. (See VOD story at

Bobb said he will announce public hearings and put out Requests for Proposals for charter operators during the week of Mar. 21, but has not done so to date. His alternatives have not yet been approved at the state level.

Superintendent Mike Flanagan approved devastating DEP

“DPS and other districts in deficit may develop and implement initiatives that are not in their Deficit Elimination Plan,” Jan Ellis, spokesperson for State Schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan, told VOD on Mar. 16. “They will need to amend their Deficit Elimination Plan to reflect all chances they are making to reduce their deficit. The content of these plans are developed by the districts not MDE. We review and approve only. We have not received a revised plan since their announcement.”.

Unsurprisingly, school board president Anthony Adams told the daily media that he strongly supports the first-year charter school transformation. Adams was general counsel for the district under the former state-appointed CEO Kenneth Burnley, and an ardent advocate of privatization as Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s Deputy Mayor. (Click on VOD  http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=1569 and http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=224 to read more about Adams.)  

Anthony Adams

Adams and the Board will have no power over Bobb’s plans, however. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed the anti-democratic, anti-worker package of Emergency Manager bills Mar. 18, enacting Public Act 4 of 2011, despite massive opposition from huge rallies and an occupation at the Capitol in Lansing.

 PA 4 bestows nearly ALL powers in cities and school districts under state receivership on “Emergency Managers,” (previously known as Emergency Financial Managers, but now endowed with absolute rule over academics and other areas as well). The criteria for declaring a governmental entity in an “emergency” are unclear and open-ended, left totally up to Snyder and renegade State Treasurer Andy Dillon (an unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the 2010 primary).

On Mar. 18, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter stayed her order barring Bobb from dealing with academics, even though the legislation gives DPS and other governmental entities currently under EFM control 60 days to enact the changes in the legislation.

Bing

Landrieu

It was no accident that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing met with New Orleans’ Mayor Mitch Landrieu in that city last month, prior to Bobb’s announcement. Bobb said he is consulting with Bing on which schools to select, to coordinate them with Bing’s Detroit Works down-sizing project, better known as the “Trail of Tears,” in which Bing plans to depopulate certain neighborhoods.

Seventy-percent of New Orleans schoolchildren now attend charter schools. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=719 to read VOD article Bing’s Detroit: the next New Orleans?). 

After Katrina, the state of Louisiana shut down the city’s entire school district, whose student population was 98 percent Black. The district re-opened later, predominantly under state receivership, after most of its workers were laid off.

Teachers do not cause school deficits

 “Every teacher in New Orleans was fired,” Joe Rose, Communications Director for the United Teachers of New Orleans, told NPR’s Amy Goodman then. “There were 7,500 school employees, everybody from cafeteria workers, truck drivers and custodians to teachers, and there were about 4,000 teachers. Solid middle class employees, career professionals who had dedicated their careers to helping try to educate the children in one of the neediest cities in the country, a city with one of the highest poverty rates, as everybody saw in the days immediately following Katrina.”

Tulane University’s Cowan Institute lauded the change, at the same time noting that total enrollment in the city’s schools, including charters, had declined from 65,000 to 38,000 students.

New Orleans school after Katrina

“Those students, as a whole, are doing better in the reconstituted school system,” the Cowan Institute crowed. “Test scores, which once lagged far behind the state average, have risen rapidly since Katrina, though a majority of students are still failing standardized reading and math tests.  Before the storm, nearly two-thirds of the city’s schools were labeled academically unacceptable, while in 2009, only 42 percent of schools failed to meet the state standard.”

The federal government gave a $24 million grant to the city to fund charter school development, and later agreed to spend $1.84 BILLION on construction and re-building of school buildings (most now converted to charters) damaged by Katrina.

New Orleans school children showing off Saints jerseys

However, post-Katrina New Orleans schools differ dramatically from the pre-Katrina system in another way. A 2008 study by the University of Michigan and the Rand Institute found that 51 percent of the city’s residents had not returned within two years of the disaster, and few planned to do so.

The report concluded, “The overall implication of these results for the future population of New Orleans is likely only very modest growth from the return of still-displaced residents. The city will continue its post-Katrina experience of being older, whiter and more highly-educated, and with fewer families, children, and people out of the labor force.”

New Orleans survivors demand right to return

The report noted the need for affordable rental housing to encourage return, but instead the city demolished ALL of its public housing developments, even those that had not been damaged by Katrina. Essentially, New Orleans forced out a large number of its poor Black residents, just as Bing plans to do with Detroit Works, and just as Bobb plans to do with the Detroit Public Schools.

One of the charter school operators in New Orleans is KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), a national enterprise based in New York City. Despite generally positive publicity about KIPP generated by pro-charter forces, Brian Lack of George State University lambasted KIPP in a study published in the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies.

KIPP student on display, reminiscent of slave auctions

“KIPP is currently receiving wholesale acclaim as a radical alternative to public schooling that works,” Lack said. “While KIPP schools ostensibly claim that college acceptance for all students is their primary goal, the principles and practices that undergird their mission are founded upon capitalistic and militaristic ideals that run counter to the ideals of democratic education. I argue that KIPP schools merely preserve the status quo by asking students to overcome overwhelming disparities through hard work and motivation, instead of addressing the structural sources of poverty and poor academic achievemen, i.e., the unequal distribution of resources in schools and society. By subscribing to a dictum of no excuses, KIPP essentially puts the onus on the victims of poverty and institutional racism. This clearly conveys the fallacy to urban students that failure in this society will solely be a reflection of not working long and hard enough, or simply not complying with rules set by those with authority.”

Click on 24518615-No-Excuses-A-Critique-of-the-Knowledge-Is-Power-Program-KIPP-within-Charter-Schools-in-the-USA[1]    to access Lack’s full study.

Eli and Edythe Broad

Additionally, New Orleans charter schools are receiving support from numerous private foundations, including the Arnold Family Foundation, The Broad Foundation, Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation, Scott S. Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, John and Ann Doerr, Doris & Donald Fisher Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Greater New Orleans Foundation, Leslie Jacobs, Walter Isaacson, JPMorgan Foundation, New Schools for New Orleans, Edward G. Schlieder Educational Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.

Bobb and his Chief Academic Accountability officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett, of course are products of the ultra-conservative Broad Foundation.

 Other organizations involved with New Orleans charter schools are variously described in the Manta business listing as profit or non-profit. Regarding New Schools for New Orleans, Manta says, Current estimates show this company has an  annual revenue of $2,175,340 and employs a staff of approximately 2.” New Schools for New Leaders, based in New York, is listed as a non-profit.

“Knowledge Is Power, Inc in Red Lion, PA is a private company categorized under Education Centers,” says Manta. “Our records show it was established in and incorporated in Pennsylvania. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $110,000 and employs a staff of approximately 5.”

Clearly these companies are looking to expand and increase their revenues on the backs of predominantly poor, Black and Latino students.

U.S. missile strikes Libya; at least 84 people have been killed so far.

 By Don DeBar 

Over the objection of the African Union, US attacks Libya

March 20, 2011 at 4:24am

http://dondebar.blogspot.com

Posted on the Black List Pub at http://theblacklistpub.ning.com/.

Muammar Gadhafi was elected chair of the African Union in 2009

NEW YORK – In a move reminiscent of Senator Mike Mansfield’s observation that “Only a Nixon could go to China,” President Barack Obama has begun a military invasion of Africa.

For those unaware, Libya is in Africa.

Ignoring the call of the African Union – the regional organization having jurisdiction which counts every African nation save Morocco among its members – and channeling the political ghost of George W. Bush on the eighth anniversary of the “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq, “America’s First Black President” ordered the launch of some 110 Tomahawk missiles on Libya Saturday, killing an unknown number of Africans for oil.

According to various media sources, Libyan authorities reported that 48 people were killed and more than 150 injured, most of them civilians, and that the missiles hit civilian targets, among them a hospital in Tripoli, in an attack that Obama claimed was intended to protect civilians from the Libyan government.

At present, as we saw during “Shock and Awe” and have seen pretty much every day since, the mainstream media tell the same story, if in different words – that Gadhafi is crazy, that he’s a brutal dictator, that this is not about oil, and that we will be in and out quickly. And this time again, as in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq (and more recently in Cote D’Ivoire), we have seen the so-called progressive media pile on in the demonization of the leadership that is a prerequisite to progressive acquiescence, if not outright acceptance, of imperial intervention.

However, facts are pesky little buggers, and have – and will – give the lie to the best conducted campaigns of obfuscation and misdirection, over time.

One example – do we still believe that the Iraqi people want to give us flowers for bombing, and then invading, invading their country – particularly after we had starved it for a decade prior?

President Obama and Secy. of State Hilary Clinton at NATO summit

Meanwhile one wonders here in New York how a former Senator from this state who helped sell the Iraq debacle and lost the presidency as a consequence is now apparently making war policy for the White House over the objections of the Secretary of Defense. Could it be that elections here matter as little as they are claimed to in those varied places around the globe that await our enlightened intervention?

One thing for certain – once again, the symbolism of the first-strike attack couldn’t tell the story more clearly. The Tomahawk missile barrage features a weapon ostensibly named after a weapon of self-defense by the original inhabitants of this continent. To those who value truth, however, it is known that, in the first act of nation-building by the bearers of the missiles, those original peoples suffered genocide at the hands of these purported freedom-lovers so complete that it lacks historical analogy before or since. That these weapons are now being used on the people of Africa – the second stop for genocide in the building of that nation of hypocrites – simply makes the point for those too blind to see it in the first case.

‘WESTERN AGENDA BEHIND LIBYA ATTACK’

The United States, Britain and France have launched air and sea attacks on forces loyal to Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi to enforce a no-fly zone.

Press TV has discussed the issue with John Rees from the Stop the War Coalition in London.

Press TV: Regarding the no-fly zone, would you share your thoughts with us on the implementation of that UN Security Council resolution?

John Rees at left with opponents of U.S. occupation of Iraq, 2006

I think it’s immediately clear that what many people imagined to be the look of a no-fly zone has been completely contradicted by the very first hour of its implementation. I think most people kind of thought it would be a kind of neutral pacific umbrella, which would allow revolutionary forces to regain momentum inside Libya itself.

But what is absolutely clear now is that with 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired within a matter of hours and with air sorties being run over Libya the Western intervention will entirely transform the nature of this conflict.

It’s not about helping the Libyan people it’s about asserting the power of Western imperial nations in this part of the globe.

Stamps marking anniversary of 1986 U.S. bombing of Tripoli which killed Gadhafi's infant daughter

Press TV:

Let’s discuss the resolution itself a little more. There doesn’t seem to be an end-game designated in this resolution; no time frame; and also the targets have not been defined as to which targets are to be attacked and which are not. Can you tell us more about the missing addendums in this resolution?

 It is increasingly clear that rather than being a specific and illuminative commitment it is indeed as you say an open-ended one. I believe it is a revival of an old UN resolution, which does rather give you the impression that something has been designed here, which is to give the freest possible hand to the military of the big powers and not to circumscribe their activity in any way whatsoever.

Press TV: You mention it’s been designed in a way to give mostly the Western powers as much freedom as possible, but the question that pops into mind is – is it just going to end there, is what we are seeing with the foreign military intervention in a no fly zone going to be the end of it?

John Rees: The obvious risk is that it won’t; that this will be the wedge. And we can imagine scenarios so easily I think where the war would descend from the air to the ground.

RAF fighter jets over Libya

For instance, what would be the situation if Libyan air defenses bring down one of the major powers’ aircraft? Or, if they capture a pilot and display that pilot perhaps after torture on the television screens – will we not then here very insistent voices in London and Paris and in Washington saying that special services need to be deployed or perhaps larger numbers of troops? What if Gaddafi continues to fight a conflict with the Libyan people, which he hasn’t mainly done through air power by the way, it’s been perhaps 90 percent to do with ground forces? What if he continues that struggle and the no fly zone doesn’t halt his attack on the Libyan revolution? Will there not then be calls for further measures?

I think we’ve been here before; we’ve seen what happens before and I think the dangers are all too apparent now.

Libya: Shock and awe on anniversary of U.S. invasion of Iraq

Press TV:

Some very interesting points you’ve mentioned there. Apart from the reasons that might demand further intervention from foreign forces in Libya, what about the aftermath of the resolution? Do you think the US is going to be obliged or assume the role of a protagonist in the survival of the revolution?

 I think the US is certainly engaged obviously militarily. And if it is a lasting conflict it will be the US overwhelming military arch that is called upon to do the bulk of the fighting. Certainly the overstretched British forces deployed already in Afghanistan to be cut to 93,000 personnel if the current government carries through its defense review are not going to be conducting any type of long term commitment here.

So, if it lasts longer and if they are drawn into greater deployment it will be the US, which is at the heart of that. And they will alter the character of what’s going on. They are not there to defend the revolution; they are there to halt or freeze revolutionary developments and to gain a hand in a fast moving series of revolutionary movements in the Arab world, which has left them utterly disconcerted, that’s what this is about.

Press TV: Prior to the implementation and of the drafting of the resolution of the no fly zone – how come the US has been taking a back seat in all of this?

 I think for two reasons really. Anybody who’s watched the international opinion poll will know that US international standing is at an all-time low after Iraq and Afghanistan and so it makes sense in PR terms that they’re not seen to lead this. And anybody who has studied domestic opinion polls will know that the Afghan war is massively unpopular in the US; deployment in this conflict is also unpopular in the US and this president ran on his record of arguing for withdrawal – which still hasn’t happened – form Iraq.

US uses allies as cover

So there are both domestic and international reasons why the US would prefer to others rode in the forward seat on this particular expedition.

Press TV: Regarding the events that are going to be transpiring on the ground, is this no-fly zone going to be enough to shift the momentum of what’s going on in favor of the revolutionaries?

John Rees: Military events in the middle of battle are notoriously hard to predict. I think it was Napoleon who said that no plan survives contact with the enemy. So I think we’ll have a very different picture perhaps in two or three days’ time than we have at the moment.

But I think we do have to be clear that this is not the purpose; it’s not the motivation for the US to intervene to assist the revolutionary process. If that is what they were interested in, after all, they wouldn’t be allowing the Saudis and the Qataris and others to try to crush the revolution in Bahrain.

If assisting revolutions was their aim that contradiction wouldn’t exist. They have interests in Libya and they have a genuine interest I think in hoping they can draw a line in front of the further advance of the revolutionary movement throughout the Middle East. And that means intervening to at least freeze the revolutionary process in Libya and allowing the surviving dictators to attack the revolutionary forces in other countries without them even mentioning the question of intervention let alone actually acting on it.

Press TV: You mentioned a few Arab nations in your comments. What can you tell us about the Arab world’s reaction and their willingness in participating in the implementation of the no-fly zone over Libya?

John Rees: I mentioned Qatar – there’s a deep irony surely in the fact that Qatari troops are now currently being deployed alongside Saudi troops in crushing the Bahrain revolution and at the same time it is being said that they will supply aircraft to take part in the no-fly zone. The only way you can make sense of this is if you say that what is going on in Libya is an attempt to freeze the revolutionary process and to advance Western aims because that is congruent or complimentary to what they’re doing in Bahrain. Otherwise you have a great deal of difficulty making any logical sense of the two cases here.

Press TV: What about Gaddafi’s side? What kind of a contingency plan do you think he has? Up until the implementation of this no-fly zone it had always been just talk, but now it has actually materialized; we’ve seen French and US forces already attacking targets in Libya – what do you think Gaddafi has in mind for his next step?

John Rees: Well I think it’s a big ask to invite me to comment on the state of mind of Colonel Gaddafi – I don’t feel that I have the necessary qualifications to do that. However, what I think the effect will be on the Gaddafi camp is this: that the threat of foreign intervention will underline something that has been a constant part of Gaddafi’s propaganda from the beginning and that is that the revolution is simply a tool or front for the Western powers. This intervention makes it seem as if that is true and therefore some people who may have been thinking of deserting or quitting the Gaddafi camp, some sections of the army, may feel more inclined to stay with the army. 

Protesters march down Dexter Avenue from site of fire that killed three seniors, two in wheelchairs

By Shannon Jones

14 March 2011

(Photos and story from Red Quixote website, courtesy of the Coalition Against Utility Shut-offs and http://wsws.org.)

On March 12, the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS) held a spirited demonstration down Dexter Avenue in Detroit to demand an end to utility shutoffs.

About 100 people participated in the event, representing a wide cross-section of workers and young people. Demonstrators included neighborhood residents, teachers, health care workers, unemployed and retirees. There were also Detroit high school students, community college students and students from Eastern Michigan University, Wayne State University, Oakland University and the University of Michigan.

Watch video at http://redquixote.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/video-the-committee-against-utility-shutoffs-holds-demonstration-in-detroit/.

Antonio Allen, 18, left, is comforted by his older brother, Marvin Allen Jr., upon seeing the remains of the family home in which their father, Marvin Allen Sr., 61; uncle, Tyrone Allen, 60; and Lynn Greer, a female friend of his uncle, died in a fire Jan. 5, 2010.

The march began at the scene of a tragic fire that took the lives of three people on January 5, 2010: two disabled brothers, Marvin Allen, 62, and Tyrone Allen, 61, and Lynn Greer, 58. The fire was sparked by a space heater being used to heat the home after utilities had been shut off.

CAUS chairman and SEP Assistant National Secretary Lawrence Porter spoke from the steps of the Allen house, which still remains as it was after being consumed by flames over one year ago. He began by calling for a moment of silence in the memory of the Allen brothers and all those who have died due to utility shutoffs.

In opening his remarks Porter said that the demonstrators “pledge to remember those who have lost their lives in fires caused by utility shutoffs. At the same time we raise our voice in protest against the barbaric conditions that led to their tragic deaths.” (See, “Lawrence Porter at CAUS rally: ‘Utilities are a social right!’”.)

“Utilities are a social right,” Porter insisted, to acclamations from those assembled. “People have a right not to freeze to death! They have the right not to live on the bare edge of survival. To realize this right, however, we must fight for it. And this demonstration is an initial stage in this fight.”

Porter said that CAUS was formed and the demonstration called on the basis of the understanding that “if workers are to win their rights, they must organize themselves independently”—independently of the trade unions and the Democratic Party. In particular, he pointed to the role of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Detroit Mayor David Bing in supporting the interests of DTE and other utility companies. (VOD ed: Read VOD article “Utility privatizer running Water Department at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4865.)

No more shut-offs for profit!

“We are here not to appeal to DTE, for they do not hear our appeals,” Porter concluded. “We are here not to beg Mayor Bing, for he listens to a different paymaster. We are here to assert our strength, the strength of the working class. We are here to pledge to carry forward this struggle until we have created a society that no longer sacrifices the lives of those who have died here, along with countless millions throughout the world, to the altar of profit.”

The demonstrators marched north on Dexter Avenue carrying signs and banners. Chants of “Heat and light are social rights,” “Utilities for profit—we’ve got to stop it” and “Money for schools, not for war,” attracted interest and support from neighborhood residents, motorists and shoppers.

The march was followed by a meeting at the Dexter-Elmhurst community center. After introductory remarks by Porter, who described the enormous extent of the utility shutoff crisis in Detroit and nationally, members of CAUS and others participating in the demonstration spoke about their own experiences with utility shutoffs and the purpose of the march.

Doris of CAUS

Doris, a member of CAUS, said, “This is about making a change. We have to understand that we can do it if we come together united and stand for the same cause. It is for the people all over the world.

“Lights and utilities should be affordable for everyone…We must stand together and let people know that we are no longer going to be oppressed by corporations, by DTE, by the government. We have to stand up for what we believe in. Utilities are a social right,” Griffin declared.

“It is inhuman to have utilities cut off in the winter—it is causing death,” Griffin added. “A month ago a friend of mine died. She was cold from September all the way through January. When they finally turned the utilities on she just lay down and died the next week. She was 60 years old.

“I met a woman who paid $696 for her utility bill. She told me ‘I chose between my utilities or my mortgage.’ She said ‘I can’t let my baby be cold, so I took my mortgage payment and paid my utilities, and now I have to find a way to make up my mortgage.’

Tro'vion Young's classmate plays "Amazing Grace" at funeral for Tro'vion, Serena, and Fantasia Young, toddlers who died in fire after DTE shut-off last year.

“While these things are happening people are out of jobs, they are losing their homes… Who can afford to pay five, six, seven, eight hundred dollars a month for utilities? You pay one month, and you are looking at another $600 or $700 payment the next. What we have done today is show the world that we are going to stand for the rights of people.”

Another CAUS member, Cynthia, said, “It is a shame what DTE is doing to the people. I know a guy who owns a Coney Island [diner]. They charged him $3,000. They are getting ready to turn his gas off. I brought him a poster for the march. He was so glad to have it.

“We are in the right…It is a shame people’s bills are so high. It is a shame when you get your bill out of the mailbox, and it is so high even though you are not using gas and lights.”

Fire rescuers Dante Wilson (l) and Jarmar Taylor (center) grieve with other neighborhood youth at site of fire that killed the Young children after DTE shut-off.

Kimberly spoke about the paltry help available to those who have fallen behind on their bills. “I have dragged my sister to three of the sessions DTE gives at these churches. They tell you the same thing about weatherizing your houses. They give you a certificate and a few plastic things to put on your windows. I have not received any help from DTE yet.

“I went to the DTE customer assistance day, and I still haven’t received anything they promised me.”

An unemployed worker from Detroit spoke on the connection between utility shutoffs and the lack of jobs in the city. “People have the right to work, the right to live,” he insisted. “It is time to take a stand, to take control. We should not ask them to do things, we should demand.”

A Detroit high school student spoke of the problems his family was facing as a result of shutoffs. “It is a shame what they do to our household.” He said that his father was in prison, so his mother told him he had to stand up and help take care of the family. “How can I stand up when DTE cuts off our heat? When you pay them all you can give, why are they still cutting your gas and lights off?”

CAUS rally at Dexter-Elmhurst Center

“Something is wrong. It is time to put our foot down. I say we are not taking this. Step up for your rights.”

Linda, a worker at an Oakland County non-profit agency, related her experiences. “I have calls from people who had their utilities shut off. I had a mother who had to give her infant to a relative because she had no heat in her home.

“This is not just in Detroit. We need to make people aware of what is going on. It is important to spread the word and let people know we are suffering.”

Toward the conclusion of the meeting, SEP National Secretary Joseph Kishore noted that everyone in the room spoke for thousands of people who are facing similar outrageous conditions—bills in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars, heat cut off in the dead of winter, lawns dug up to prevent any possible access to gas.

“The ruling class is at war with the population,” Kishore said, “and workers are beginning to fight back.” He referred to the events in Wisconsin, where 100,000 workers were demonstrating the same day against the attack on their democratic rights and benefits, as well as the social eruptions in Egypt and the Middle East.

Kishore spoke about the role of both Democrats and Republicans in attacking the working class, citing the way in which Democratic governors and the Obama administration were slashing social programs. Obama has proposed to cut in half federal funding for heating assistance, already completely inadequate to meet social need.

The fight of workers for their rights and interests brought them into conflict with the corporations and the capitalist system as a whole. “The right to heat and gas is opposed to the right of utility companies to shut off utilities. The right to employment is opposed to the right of the corporations to destroy jobs. The right to education is opposed to the right of the government to shut down our schools.

“If we accept capitalism, then we accept the right of these companies to profit off the backs of the working class.”

The Socialist Equality Party initiated the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs in anticipation of emerging struggles of the working class. Workers need their own organizations, Kishore said. “Above all, the working class needs its own political party and leadership.”

In closing, Kishore urged those in attendance to join the SEP and make plans to attend the conference, The Fight for Socialism Today, sponsored by the Socialist Equality Party and the International Students for Social Equality to be held in Ann Arbor on the weekend of April 9-10.

http://redquixote.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/demonstration-in-detroit-demands-end-to-utility-shutoffs

 

Aiyana Stanley Jones

Gov. Rick Snyder

The following letter was sent by Roland Lawrence, chair of the Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee, to the UM Board of Regents; it also calls for city-wide observations in commemoration of Aiyana’ death on May 16, the one-year anniversary.

March 18, 2011

Board of Regents, University of Michigan:

Julia Donovan Darlow, Laurence B. Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia P. Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio) President, University of Michigan

The University of Michigan, 2074 Fleming Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1340 

Dear Regents of the University of Michigan:

In the early morning hours of May 16, 2010, the Detroit Police Department, accompanied by an A & E film crew, threw a flash grenade bomb into the home where 7 year old Aiyana Jones as she slept.  In addition, according to some reports, a gunshot to her head sealed her premature death.

I have organized a group called Justice for Aiyana Committee that will help to stage mass community action events on the one-year anniversary of Aiyana’s death on May 16, 2011.  On this day, we hope to have individuals, block clubs, organizations, schools, etc. to forge a community action event in their communities including concerts, town hall meetings, open mike sessions, musicians playing on streets corners, etc.  We invite the University of Michigan to join this effort.  As such, young Aiyana, by no choosing of her own, became a child martyr.  

Graphic shows shooting of Aiyana according to second autopsy report

In stark contrast, your group, the Universityof Michigan Board of Regents, voted unanimously to allow Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to speak to our future leaders at their graduation ceremonies in May 2011.  Your group also, it is reported, will bestow upon Governor Snyder an honorary doctorate degree.  Not only are these approvals wrong, they fit well into a result that will create even more horrific and dangerous environments that, for instance, cost young Aiyana and countless others a death that came too, too soon. 

More specifically, we are strongly urging this Board to pass a resolution condemning the actions of the City of Detroit, the Detroit Police Department and the A & E Network for their role in the death of Aiyana Jones.  Also, we are strongly urging this Board to rescind the allowance of Governor Snyder to speak to the graduates of the University of Michigan during their May 2011 commencement.  We also strongly urge this Board to rescind giving Governor Snyder an honorary doctorate.

Surely, this Board has a conscience alongside its other admirable traits.  Finally, we strongly urge this Board to act as members of a caring, loving and humane family of individuals.

 Sincerely,

Roland Lawrence, Chairman 

Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee

justice4aiyana@hotmail.com

When will the dream be realized for our children?

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