Officer-involved shooting in Magnusson Park leaves 3 children in protective custody.

Seattle police on Sunday shot and killed a 30-year-old old woman who had called officers to report an attempted burglary and then displayed a knife, SPD said. Police took three children from the home; the victim’s sister says the shooting was unnecessary.

By Lynn Thompson , Seattle Times staff reporters

Originally published June 18, 2017; Updated June 19, 2017

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/officer-involved-shooting-in-magnuson-park-leaves-3-children-in-protective-custody/

Charleena Lyles, 30, pregnant mother of 4, killed by Seattle police June 18, 2017

SEATTLE, WA–Dozens of people attended a vigil Sunday night for a 30-year-old woman fatally shot by Seattle police as department use-of-force investigators probed how officers wound up killing a woman who had called police for help.

Just after 10 a.m. Sunday, Seattle police responded after the woman had called to report an attempted burglary at her Magnuson Park apartment. At some point, police said, she displayed a knife and two officers shot and killed her.

Relatives identified the woman as Charleena Lyles.

Family members said she was several months pregnant and had been struggling with mental-health issues for the past year. They said she was concerned authorities would take her children, one of whom they said has Down syndrome.

Charleena Lyles with her children

Family members arriving about two hours later were distraught and questioned why police shot her. She was “tiny,” they said, and believe her race — she is African American — was a factor.

The SPD has confirmed that both officers were white.

“Why couldn’t they have Tased her? They could have taken her down. I could have taken her down,” said Monika Williams, Lyles’ sister.

[‘Get back! Get back!’: Seattle police release audio of fatal shooting of Charleena Lyles]

(Police redacted a portion of the audiotape; click on second part to hear remainder.)

Detective Mark Jamieson said officers were alerted to “hazard information” in the system after a previous encounter with the woman, which prompted a two-officer response Sunday morning when she called to report an attempted burglary in her fourth-floor unit at Brettler Family Place apartments.

“Officers were confronted by a 30-year-old woman armed with a knife,” the department wrote on its web blotter. “Both officers fired their duty weapons, striking the woman.

Lyles’ oldest sister Monika Williams comforts child at Brettler Family Place Apts./Photo Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“There were several children inside the apartment at the time of the shooting, but they were not injured,” the department said. “They are being cared for by other family members at this time.”

Family members said the children were two boys and a girl, ages 11, 4 and 1.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, in a statement Sunday afternoon, called the incident “a tragedy for all involved.”

“My thoughts are with the many people impacted, including three children and the responding officers,” he said.

Murray and police Chief Kathleen O’Toole said the shooting will be reviewed by the department’s Force Investigation Team and the Office of Professional Accountability. The King County Prosecutor’s Office also will review the incident and likely call for a coroner’s inquest.

Florida Carroll holds her grandson Quayvis Carroll as they visit a memorial for Charleena Lyles.

Williams, the grieving sister, wept and yelled epithets outside the apartment, telling reporters Lyles had been shot and killed by police. Another woman, who later said she was a stepsister, Florida Carroll, wept uncontrollably and wrung her hands.

Williams said her sister had “mental-health problems” and questioned the need for officers to use deadly force.

She said Lyles had been arrested earlier this month by officers responding to another call after she had armed herself as protection against her boyfriend. Jamieson said she had a pair of scissors during the previous encounter.

“There’s no reason for her to be shot in front of her babies,” Williams yelled at reporters. “The Seattle police shot the wrong one today.”

King County Jail records indicate Lyles was arrested and booked into jail June 5 for obstruction of a public official and two counts of harassment filed in Seattle Municipal Court. She was released conditionally June 14. Details of the June 5 incident were not immediately available.

Protesters gather outside apartments at memorial for Charleena Lyles.

Williams said one of the conditions of her release was that Lyles receive mental-health counseling. That claim could not be immediately confirmed Sunday.

Shortly after the shooting, a uniformed police officer was seen cradling a sleeping child outside the apartments. Two other children were in back of a police SUV.

Sean O’Donnell, captain of the Seattle Police Department North Precinct, said one of the officers involved in the shooting is an 11-year veteran of the force. The other he described as “newer to the department.”

The Seattle Police Department has been under a federal consent decree since 2012 after a Department of Justice investigation found its officers routinely engaged in excessive use of force, most often against people with mental or substance abuse problems. Federal investigators also found evidence of biased policing.

Recently, a federal court-appointed monitor found encouraging signs that the department had made significant progress in its reforms.

Seattle Police Captain Sean O’Donnell

A brother of Lyles, Domico Jones, said his sister had suffered from mental-health issues for the past year and the family had tried to help her. He said care of the 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome required Lyles’ round-the-clock attention.

He said Lyles worried that the children would be taken from her and that the apartment management wanted to get her out of the complex. He echoed other family members who said she was a small woman.

“She was not a person you would fear or feel intimidated by,” Jones said.

The Brettler Family Place is part of a complex of apartments for formerly homeless people operated by Solid Ground. Mike Buchman, communications director for Solid Ground, said about 400 people live at the complex in Magnuson Park.

The Brettler is made up of two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments for families. Buchman said about half the residents are children.

By early Sunday evening, more than 50 people had gathered outside the apartment complex to support Lyles’ family. They mounted photos of Lyles and her children on black plastic chairs, chalked her name on the pavement and filled in the letters with votive candles.

Andre Taylor denounces prosecutor in March, 2017 for refusing to file charges against Seattle police, who killed his brother Che Taylor.

Among those assembled was Andrè Taylor, an activist whose brother, Che Taylor, was fatally shot last year after a confrontation with police. He said a family member of Lyles had contacted him for advice. “They haven’t gone through this,” he said. “I have.”

Family members expressed disbelief at the police response, noting that officers had had contact with Lyles before.

“Each time she called, it cost her something,” said Wanda Cockerhern, a cousin. “This time it cost her her life.”

Staff reporter Steve Miletich contributed to this report. Lynn Thompson: lthompson@seattletimes.com or 206-464-8305. On Twitter @lthompsontimes

UPDATE: PROF. BERNADETTE ATUAHENE SPEECH AT PEOPLE’S FORUM ON FORECLOSURES JUNE 17, 2017

VOD editor, June 19, 2017:  These videos of Prof. Atuahene giving a truly dynamic, riveting presentation at the Forum to End Unconstitutional Tax Foreclosures are being published today. Further updates on the forum, which VOD covered and videotaped, will be forthcoming shortly. Professor Atuahene included the third video below at the beginning of her presentation.

People’s Forum: Coalition to End Unconstitutional Tax Foreclosures

Sat. June 17 from 1-3:30 p.m. at WSU Law School

471 Palmer at Cass, Free Parking in Lot 32 across from Law School

Numerous organizations join Law Professor Bernadette Atuahene, call for fight to reverse Detroit tax foreclosures in revolutionary new approach

Class action lawsuit already underway

Coalition calls for “path to redistributive justice”

June 14, 2017

Cornell Squires speaks at tax foreclosure protest outside Wayne County Treasurer’s office April 30, 2015.

VOD Editor: This Sunday, June 18, VOD reporter/photographer Cornell Squires would have been 60 years old. A leader of We the People for the People, and RICObusters, he fought foreclosures throughout the tri-county area tirelessly. His firm position was that the people had a right to restitution of illegally paid taxes, not eviction, since the City of Detroit had not performed annual property value assessments required by the State Constitution and was charging its residents severely inflated tax rates.

Cornell Squires passed Nov. 19, 2016 of a heart attack, and we still mourn his loss. He would have been thrilled to hear of this new Coalition and in complete support of Prof. Atuahene’s analysis that Detroit tax rates are unconstitutional.

Cornell Squires: PRESENTE!

By the Coalition to End Unconstitutional Tax Foreclosures. 

The city of Detroit has illegally foreclosed on thousands of its poorest residents. In response, local activist groups have formed the Coalition to End Unconstitutional Tax Foreclosures. 

The Forum will hear from those who have been foreclosed on, and with them determine a path to redistributive justice against these illegal foreclosures.

Bernadette Atuahene, a Wayne State law professor, is leading the coalition and has published a column about this, originally in the Detroit Free Press last year at http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/09/01/detroits-tax-foreclosures-indefensible/89717644/.  

Below is an excerpt from that guest editorial.

DETROIT’S TAX FORECLOSURES: INDEFENSIBLE

“A Hurricane without water”

By Prof. Bernadette Atuahene

Law Prof. Bernadette Atuahene

Like with [Hurricane] Katrina, the property tax foreclosure crisis in Detroit has wiped out entire neighborhoods inhabited by poor and working-class Black people. From 2011-15, the Wayne County treasurer foreclosed upon approximately one in four Detroit properties for nonpayment of property taxes.

In fact, Detroit has one of the highest number of property tax foreclosures any American city has had since the Great Depression. Most important, once foreclosed properties are vacated, they are often vandalized, burned down or stripped of all valuable materials, creating a flood of blighted properties that decimate communities by reducing property values, attracting crime and causing those who can to evacuate. . . . I recently co-authored a study titled “Stategraft” that demonstrates that Detroit’s unprecedented property tax foreclosure rate is indefensible because property tax assessments in Detroit are, in fact, illegal.  

Luis and Cecilia Espinoza, who live with their 5 children in corner home in southwest Detroit, with Cornell Squires at right, show vacant and vandalized properties next door. Nonetheless, they were assessed astronomical tax rates in 2015.

Michigan’s  Constitution clearly decrees that a property’s assessed value cannot exceed 50% of its market value. In our study, we find that Detroit’s assessor is flagrantly violating this vital state constitutional provision. Consequently, contrary to popular narratives, it is the city that is stealing from Detroit property owners through illegal assessments and inflated property tax bills, and not the other way around. And while the city has reassessed properties during the last two years, those actions have not been enough to bring most assessments in line with the Michigan Constitution. 

[In “Stategraft”] we find that, in 2009, 65.5% of the properties sold violated the state constitutional assessment limit.  In subsequent years the numbers were equally shocking:

2010 (84.7%)                               2011 (54.6%)                     2012 (71.4%)                            2013 (78.2%)                               2014 (83.2%)                     2015 (64.7)

The property tax assessments were not only above the legal limit, but they also exceeded it by a substantial sum. For instance, in 2010, assessments were, on average, 7.3 times higher than the legal limit. In 2015, assessments were, on average, 2.1 times higher than the legal limit.

Duggan’s point man Dan Gilbert is head of his Demolition Task Force. Gilbert’s Quicken Loans is responsible for many of the city’s mortgage foreclosures.

In all years studied, the illegality was most pronounced for lower-valued properties. That is, the city is more likely to assess modest homes at illegal levels than it is more expensive homes, leaving the most vulnerable homeowners drowning in injustice. 

Detroit’s mayor, Mike Duggan — a former prosecutor — acknowledged that “for years, homes across the city have been over assessed,” and tried to remedy this in 2014 and 2015 by implementing assessment decreases for most of the city, ranging from 5% to 20%.

Our study shows that illegal property tax assessments nevertheless persist for lower-valued properties despite these reductions. For example, in 2015, properties with the lowest values were, on average, assessed at 4.8 times the legal limit, while properties with the highest values were, on average, legally assessed.

Both before and after Duggan’s assessment reductions, those who can afford only modest properties have been subject to the most severe illegality and forced to endure the consequences of Detroit’s broken levees.

In July, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the law firm of Covington & Burling filed a class action  alleging that the unprecedented number of property tax foreclosures in Detroit is unlawful on several counts, including the fact that the property tax assessments systematically violate the state constitution and the Fair Housing Act. The findings of “Stategraft” strongly support this claim.

Occupy Detroit and Moratorium NOW blockade Detroit home slated for eviction in 2011.

The end goal of the class action is to stop all property tax foreclosures that are based upon illegal assessments. As an interim measure, the legal team recently filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would place a moratorium on property tax foreclosures of owner-occupied properties in Detroit and throughout Wayne County.

. . . . just as we do not allow homeless people in desperate need to burglarize homes, we should not allow the City of Detroit to use unlawful assessments and inflated property tax bills to steal money from Detroit property owners. Additionally, the requested moratorium is narrowly tailored so that it protects only vulnerable homeowners and not investors. 

Given the mortgage foreclosure crisis, water shutoffs and historic bankruptcy, the people of Detroit have already had to weather several devastating storms. Now that they are facing a hurricane without water, the federal government cannot leave Detroiters stranded. 

The ACLU website for the lawsuit is at http://www.aclumich.org/article/aclu-sues-wayne-county-end-racially-discriminatory-tax-foreclosures-Detroit

The Coalition to End Unconstitutional Foreclosures has a website at http://illegalforeclosures.org/

A Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/IllegalForeclosures/

An Events page at https://www.facebook.com/IllegalForeclosures/

Contacts  at 313-466-2293, info@illegalforeclosures.org, twitter @illforeclosures

Members of Coalition to End Unconstitutional Foreclosures

DONATE TO VOICE OF DETROIT

To our readers: Voice of Detroit is published pro bono. You don’t have to pay to access our stories. But there are substantial out-of pocket costs associated with its publication. Any donation amount is much appreciated. Unfortunately, our Donate button recently went down, but you can still donate by clicking https://www.gofundme.com/VOD-readers-up.

We sincerely thank We the People of Detroit, one of the sponsors of the Coalition to End Unconstitutional Tax Foreclosures, for their recent kind donation, which came just in time to keep our phone on! Call us at 313-825-6126 for more info on Voice of Detroit.

Related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/02/15/duggans-decades-long-detroit-demolition-derby/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/08/25/we-the-people-cry-genocide-detroit-water-shut-offs-foreclosures-erasing-black-neighborhoods/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/05/activists-say-wayne-co-tax-foreclosures-illegal-violation-of-indigenous-rights-domestic-terrorism/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/07/20/stop-foreclosures-of-detroiters-homes-and-businesses-rally-tues-july-21-11-am-hart-plaza/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/03/29/unprecedented-katrina-of-tax-foreclosures-to-hit-detroit-wayne-county-march-31/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/10/26/we-charge-genocide-detroit-water-shut-offs-foreclosures-focus-of-un-visit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/19/stop-government-foreclosures-of-our-homes-hurricane-fannie-freddie-pack-hearing-wed-feb-20-2pm-u-s-judge-nancy-edmunds/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/05/24/chief-judge-smith-to-rule-on-recusal-of-colombo-in-fluker-case-mers-foreclosures-declared-illegal/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/09/22/class-action-hearing-oct-14-on-80000-illegal-foreclosures/

Mass rally in Venezuela against U.S. intervention, right-wing coup in the works

 STOP U.S. INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA!

NATIONAL EMERGENCY DAYS OF SOLIDARITY WITH VENEZUELA Initiated by International Action Center

Detroit Demonstration Initiated by Workers World Party–Detroit Branch Tuesday, June 6, 5 PM

Campus Martius Park, 800 Woodward, Detroit, MI 48226

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/841587382655619/

 The International Action Center is calling for Emergency Days of Solidarity with Bolivarian Venezuela to stop the US attempt to destroy the Revolution, from Thursday, June 1 through Saturday, June 10.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1870489586609088/

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro greets masses of supporters.

What has been happening for the last two months in Venezuela is a counterrevolution by the most reactionary forces of the opposition to President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

It is no different from what the US did with Pinochet in Chile in 1973, with the “contras” in Nicaragua in the 80’s and more recently against Libya and now in Syria. It is a ‘regime change’ effort.

The corporate media – the voice of the Pentagon and White House – has set up an international campaign of blatant lies that try to present the terrorist actions of the fascist hoards as repression from the Revolutionary Government. The truth is that these terrorist acts are directed against state buildings and agencies and against the supporters of the revolution. The aim of these protests is to create chaos to declare a ‘humanitarian crisis’ and demand US intervention.

Anti-government demonstrators burn public bus in Venezuela (Reuters)

State agencies’ buildings have been destroyed, an entire float of public buses burned, a health facility for women and children attacked. Over sixty people have died and hundreds wounded during these protests. These are not ‘pro-democracy peaceful’ protests as the media tries to portray. Criminal groups and thugs are involved. Children paid by the opposition with US aid money are also involved. The fascist, hateful and racist  character of the attacks include setting people on fire, stabbing and beating them while shouting racist insults. 

The OAS (Organization of American States) s been the principal body working on behalf of the US, to launch an international campaign against Venezuela. As a result, Venezuela left the OAS. 

Colombian Pres. Juan Manuel Santos is introduced by U.S. Pres. Donald Trump at White House press conference May 18, 2017

Now there is a real danger of a military intervention. Two days after Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met with President Trump in Washington, Colombian army tanks were mobilized to the border with Venezuela. 

Key opposition figures – Lilian Tintori, the wife of jailed right wing leader Leopoldo López, and National Assembly president Julio Borges – have met separately with Trump to request US intervention. 

During these days, we aim to:

Expose the US government and media’s role;

Show the truth behind these demonstrations;

Express solidarity with the Bolivarian people and their government.

For further information, contact 313-319-0870.

VIDEOJOURNALISM BY KENNETH SNODGRASS

Recalling Detroit’s 1967 Rebellion as its 50th anniversary approaches. 

How much has really changed for Black Detroit today? There is a 59% child poverty rate. The largest Black-majority city in the country has lost most of its major assets including the Water & Sewerage Department as a result of the racist bankruptcy. Water shut-offs to Detroit homes rose to 27,552 in 2016. The majority-Black Detroit Public Schools District has been abolished and replaced with a state-controlled district. What is the future for Detroit’s Black youth?

The disastrous Vietnam War and its toll on Black soldiers, dying on the front lines fighting people of color.  

The armed forces of the U.S., often the last retreat for Black youth employment, and U.S. economic policies still devastate Third World countries, on a par never known before, from Libya and the rest of Africa, to Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan in the Middle East, to Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and the rest of Latin America.

TIME FOR AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY!

William Keith Jenkins-Bey was a beloved member of his family, and a well-respected leader in his community both inside the walls and in the world. He will be sorely missed by all.

Hospitals, schools and transport shut down in Puerto Rico on May Day, as thousands marched to the financial center in San Juan to denounce cuts and privatizations expected under the government’s $123 billion bankruptcy filing May 3. The U.S. Congress created a new Chapter III bankruptcy law especially for Puerto Rico in its 2015-16 session. Unions and social movements say workers would pay the price in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, dwarfing even Detroit’s.

Many bankruptcy opponents demanded complete cancellation of Detroit’s debt to the banks, blaming them for the city’s crisis.

May 17, 2017–Federal U.S. Court proceedings on Puerto Rico’s $123 billion bankruptcy filing, likely to cause terrifying flashbacks for Detroit’s public workers and residents, began today. 

In Detroit, public union leaders and others capitulated to a disastrous bankruptcy plan in 2014, which stole nearly all the city’s assets including its crown jewel, the $6 billion Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. The theft of DWSD led directly to the criminal lead poisoning for profit of the people of Flint. Chapter IX bankruptcy provisions forbids the takeover of a municipality’s assets “unless the municipality agrees.” U.S. District Court Judge Steven Rhodes recognized state-appointed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr as “the city of Detroit.” Orr agreed to this wholesale rape of the largest Black majority city in the country. 

The city’s debt rose 300 percent as the banks got paid under a state-enforced emergency manager.  City workers, retirees, and residents took devastating cuts to their wages, health benefits, pensions and services. 

DAREA members disembark from bus in Cincinnati June 15, 2016 to pack 6th Circuit Court in support of their bankruptcy lawsuit. In center is DAREA President Bill Davis, to his right is DAREA VP Cecily McClellan. At far right is retiree Ezza Brandon.  The case has now moved on to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, however, various independent coalitions of retirees, including the Detroit Active and Retired Employee Association (DAREA) have sued the federal government over the bankruptcy, and are currently awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court over whether they will hear the case.

But in Puerto Rico, which has a long history of struggles for independence from the U.S., a much more militant fightback began with a general strike May 1. The outcome of THESE proceedings will depend on the workers’ determination to fight for victory. Below are excerpts from articles in Bloomberg and Telesur on Puerto Rico’s battle.

Video above: Miller Buckfire was a key player in Detroit bankruptcy.

HEDGE FUNDS VIE WITH PUERTO RICO WORKERS OVER GETTING PAID FIRST

Commonwealth’s pension systems set to go broke this year

Island’s $123 billion bankruptcy biggest in municipal history

By Michelle Kaske and Steven Church

May‎ ‎12‎, ‎2017‎ ‎5‎:‎00‎ ‎AM‎ ‎EDT

The message in Puerto Rico is blunt: pay us, not Wall Street.

Anger over the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history has centered on the urgent question of public pensions. Puerto Rico has promised its workers and retirees $49 billion in benefits, but it’s guaranteed bondholders even more. 

The pension system is scheduled to run out of money as soon as July, and many on the island fear, with benefit cuts already under discussion, that the hedge funds who own one-third of the commonwealth’s bonds will wrangle a better deal than ordinary Puerto Ricans.

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain

“The whole situation is unfair,” said Maria Rodriguez, a 64-year-old retired employee of the Public Building Administration. “I worked for over 35 years for the government and now it’s apparently clear that my pension will be cut by at least 10 percent. This is the result of the actions of multiple administrations from both parties.”

It’s a no-win situation for Puerto Rico and its 3.5 million people. Schools are being closed, talented residents are leaving and the economy has been contracting for years. 

That’s the mess confronting U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain as the adversaries face off for the first time in federal court May 17 in San Juan. They’ll be tussling over $123 billion owed to retirees and creditors.

Massive May Day strike in Puerto Rico May 1, 2017. Black and white Puerto Rican flag is symbol of independence from U.S.

 ‘Don’t Care’

In pre-hearing rhetoric, labor groups are painting rich hedge funds as uncaring vultures looking to extract money from less-wealthy public workers. The creditors say there would be more money for everyone if Puerto Rico improved its revenue collections and thinned its hulking government bureaucracy.

Emilio Nieves, Pres. of PR National Union of Educators and Education Workers

“Hedge funds don’t care what happens to the people, they want to get more profits,” said Emilio Nieves, president of Puerto Rico’s National Union of Educators and Education Workers. “They are our oppressors. We will resist and the government of Puerto Rico must decide if they are in favor of the people or the bondholders.”

Puerto Rico must decide if they are in favor of the people or the bondholders.

Average annual pension benefits are $14,000, according to Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board, and roughly one-third of employees are ineligible for Social Security benefits. Nearly half of island residents live in poverty and the median household income is $19,350, compared with $53,889 in the 50 states, according to U.S. Census data.

The commonwealth’s federal oversight board anticipates a 10 percent cut in pension expenses. That’s more generous than what Governor Ricardo Rossello offered bondholders in his latest public proposal. General-obligation bonds, or GOs, which the island’s constitution says must be repaid before other bills, would receive a best-case recovery of 90 cents on the dollar. Since that estimate depends on an improvement in the government’s finances, the recovery could be as low as 70 percent.

Divide Payments

Rossello’s fiscal plan would pay bondholders less than a quarter of what they’re owed in principal and interest through 2026. The government hasn’t said how they would divide those payments, or which group is first in line.

Puerto Rico’s “Federal Oversight Board” is appointed by the U.S. President. The City of Detroit and its new school district are similarly overseen by the State of Michigan.

“As much as there were promises made to various stakeholders on the island — pensioners, current government employees or contractors who work for the government — those are all implicit promises,” said David Tawil, president and co-founder of Maglan Capital LP in New York, who bought Puerto Rico bonds in 2013 but has since sold them. “The bondholders have explicit promises whether they be in offering documentation or whether they be pursuant to the constitution.”

The court hearing comes two weeks after Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board filed a form of bankruptcy called Title III to help reduce its $74 billion [now re-estimated at $123B] of debt and tackle its unfunded pension crisis. It will be the largest restructuring in the history of the $3.8 trillion municipal-bond market.

Title III, a provision in the Puerto Rico relief law that [the U.S.] Congress passed last year, is the only way for the island to force pension recipients to accept benefit cuts in court. Puerto Rico needed to pursue Title III in part because of its pension crisis, the board wrote in its May 3 filing. Another negotiating provision called Title VI didn’t include retirement savings. (To see bill passed by U.S. Congress without representation of Puerto Rican people, go to http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Puerto-Rico-HR-4199-bill.pdf.)

PUERTO RICO NATIONAL STRIKE PROTESTS ‘COLONIAL’ DEBT CRISIS

Nearly half the alleged $132B debt is interest to banks and hedge funds

 More than $30B in debt issued illegally

Washington’s austerity prescription is hitting workers and students hard

6o percent of Puerto Rican children live in poverty; Detroit’s child poverty rate is 59 percent

TeleSUR

Puerto RIcans rise up against oppression by U.S. and banks.

May 1, 2017–Thousands of Puerto Rican workers, students and other demonstrators took to the streets in a national strike in the early hours of International Workers’ Day Monday to protest against the harsh austerity measures pummeling the island and the controversial federal control board managing its economy and crippling debt load.

RELATED: Puerto Rico Resistance Heats up as Major Cuts Target Education

The strike shut down businesses and blocked several streets, including traffic to the Luis Muñoz Marin international airport on the outskirts of the city as well as to the University of Puerto Rico, while dozens of others gathered at the offices of the Department of Labor in the capital’s Hato Rey area to prepare for a thousands-strong march on the financial district.

University of Puerto Rico students mass in streets.

Demonstrators carried signs with slogans against U.S. colonialism and against the neoliberal austerity measures targeting the island’s public education, health care, social security and other public services. Protesters chanted slogans including “Ricky is selling the island!” to criticize Governor Ricardo Rossello, while others marched with images of the Puerto Rico flag in black and white as a symbol of resistance amid crisis on the island.

Marches led by students, feminists, trade unionists and other groups began by congregating at five points in the city and later converged by late morning in the one-mile stretch of San Juan’s Ponce de Leon Avenue, known as the Golden Mile, where the controversial U.S. president-appointed fiscal control board steering the island’s economy is headquartered in the heart of the city’s financial center.

Juan Camacho at right with other Puerto Rican organizers

The fiscal control board — set up last year through the contentious PROMESA law that gained bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress as a plan to save Puerto Rico from its nearly US$73 billion debt crisis — has become a powerful symbol of the island’s colonial relationship with Washington and the sacrificing of basic rights in the name of servicing the island’s unmanageable debt load.

“This debt cannot be paid from the pocket of the workers,” community leader Juan Camacho said during the demonstrations.

RELATED: Puerto Rico Lays Groundwork for Upcoming Vote on Statehood

Puerto Rican artist Rene Perez, known as Residente, also joined the marches and addressed the demonstrators. Wearing a T-shirt promoting free public education, the famed rapper said he was proud to see the massive strike against the debt and in favor of workers’ and students’ rights.

“I’m very certain that is happening is completely unjust,” he said on stage to a large crowd, giving a shout out to students of the University of Puerto Rico, the island’s main public post-secondary education system with a total of 11 campuses and 70,000 students, and criticizing the hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts targeting the institution. “Education is fundamental for all countries’ development. That is what they are taking away from us and that’s what we have to defend until the end and that’s why we’re here.”

Protests against the cuts and the fiscal control board have argued that much of Puerto Rico’s debt is illegitimate. An initial audit report found that up to US$30 billion of Puerto Rico’s more than US$70 billion debt load was issued illegally.

A mind-boggling report by the ReFund America Project found that nearly half of the debt the island owes is not borrowed funds, but interest on bonds underwritten by Wall Street firms, who are raking in big profits from predatory lending schemes.

Puerto Rican children in housing settlement.

Nearly half of Puerto Rico’s population lives in poverty and child poverty is soaring at 60 percent. [Detroit’s child poverty rate is 59 percent.}The island faces a Medicaid funding gap of $650 million this year, while unemployment is nearly twice the average of the rate in U.S. states.

Puerto Rico’s ability to deal with its debt crisis has been crippled by the fact that it is a colony of the United States, which bars the island from filing for bankruptcy. Critics argue that the PROMESA bill and fiscal control board — which can override the local government in making decisions on the economy and debt restructuring — lays bare Puerto Rico’s lack of independence.

(For VOD’s dozens of stories on Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, put “bankruptcy” in VOD search engine at top right.)