First of Freedom Fridays protests outside Detroit Water Board against massive water shut-offs in Detroit. Marchers call for defense for Charity Hicks, who spent two days in concentration camp conditions at the Mound Rd. prison for protesting shut-offs of her neighbors.

Justice Powerhouse- Charity Hicks

The Praxis Project is publishing this appeal by Kolu Zigbi to support our comrade and sister Charity Hicks. Please consider supporting this extraordinary servant leader.

“Your Human Dignity shouldn’t be truncated because you’re priced out of the commodification of an essential resource.“

Charity Hicks on water shut-offs

 Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Charity Hicks, an extraordinary Detroit activist, advocate, movement weaver, and policy director for the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC), has been in a coma in a New York City hospital since May 31^st.

She has very serious head and chest injuries resulting from a hit and run accident near Penn Station in NYC as she waited for a bus to go to the Left Forum where she was to present on a panel.

There are two parts to this email: the first describes some of her work, the second describes the need for your support and how to help.

Some of you may have heard Charity speak at the Environmental Grantmakers Association State of the States dinner at Colors restaurant in Detroit last February, or at the EDGE Funders gathering held at EMEAC the next day. I’ve had the honor of working closely with her because Charity is one of four Fellows of the Everybody At the Table for Health (EAT4Health) initiative. Read her EAT4Health bio here.

Charity Hicks is at right, attending 2013 Eat4Health convention in Texas.

She has been working to understand and influence federal policies to facilitate food access in low income communities, benefit regional farmers including African American producers, create living wage jobs in food retail and spin-off businesses, while promoting opportunities for cooperative ownership.

Charity always spoke out for the marginalized, affirmed the role of government against privatization, wove deep ecological understanding into her analysis, mentored young leaders and sat at many tables such as the Food Justice Task Force and the People’s Water Board. Charity worked with the US Food Sovereignty Alliance to bring Food Sovereignty Award recipients from Haiti and Brazil to visit urban farmers in Detroit and she later traveled to Brazil to meet with members of the MST (Landless People’s Movement).

Just in the week before the accident Charity:

• Spoke on the main stage at the Kellogg Foundation Food and Community conference

• Hosted other EAT4Health Fellows on a tour of the historic home, the Cass Corridor Commons, which EMEAC owns, manages and shares with other non-profits.

  

  Maude Barlow speaks in Detroit as Charity Hicks (far left)) chairs.

• Helped co-lead the peoples’ response to the City’s shut-off of thousands of Detroit households for non-payment of water bills as even just $75. As a member of the People’s Water Board, Charity called attention to the human rights issues involved, bringing Maude Barlow to Detroit to speak about water as part of the commons. Maud declared: But the people of Detroit face another sinister enemy. Every day, thousands of them, in a city that is situated right by a body of water carrying one-fifth of the world’s water supply, are having their ‎water ruthlessly cut off by men working for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Most of the residents are African American and two-thirds of the cut offs involve children, which means that in some cases, child welfare authorities are moving in to remove children from their homes as it is a requirement that there be working utilities in all homes housing children.

• Organized a People’s Movement Assembly on Food Justice at EMEAC

Watch this interview with Charity that explains the connections between Climate Change, the polar vortex, poverty, banks and bankruptsy, the need for an alternative approach to sustain infrastructure, and why Detroiter’s are getting their water shut off. (Link not working, alternate speech in Montreal below.)

Charity never shrank from calling out racism, and sharing a vision of justice and opportunity for all, and she used her intellectual gifts to inspire others to work together. She was in demand, perhaps too much so, and rarely turned down an invitation to speak, to create connections and grow the movement, often traveling long distances by bus and train, never complaining of the time and discomfort involved.

Charity’s husband, Louis, came to New York to be with her in the hospital. Ife Kilimanjaro, EMEAC co-director, was in the City at the time of the accident, attending the same conference. She has stayed to care for and advocate for Charity. Both have been by Charity’s side almost continuously, taking turns spending the night in her room. Sadly, Charity has, till today, been unresponsive.

What can we do? What can you do?

• EMEAC has set up a fund to collect donations promising that 100% of the money collected will go to meeting Charity’s needs. Please donate whatever you can to:

(1) Go to www.emeac.org

(2) Click “MAKE A DONATION”

(3) Name your donation and type “For Charity Hicks” under “Dedication or Gift” in the designated box

Or you can just click this button

You may also mail donations to the office, but be sure to write “For Charity Hicks” on the check or money order.

EMEAC
C/o Charity Hicks
4605 Cass Ave.
Detroit, MI 48201

• Forward this appeal to others in your network who may be compassionate and care about justice
• Louis and all of us who love Charity have not stopped hoping for a miracle and praying for her to come back. Please think of her, send her your love and good energy. Do what your spirit moves you to do on her behalf.
• If you know a professional/expert that comes to mind who might provide pro-bono help (an attorney, a brain surgeon, etc.) or have potentially helpful information to share please let me know and I will help connect you with Ife and Charity’s husband.

This is devastating for all of us, and we particularly lift up Louis and Ife for support, but also Charity’s mentors and fellow activists in her home in Detroit, and the many who know and love her throughout the country and even internationally.

With Thanks,

Kolu

Related article with Charity Hicks interview after her arrest for protesting water shut-offs in her neighborhood, shortly before the NYC tragedy. Article says Charity was expected to speak at Call ’em out Gathering that Satuday, but the accident intervened.

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/28/mass-water-shut-offs-mass-incarceration-at-mound-road-prison-for-protesters/ 

Below: video of healing circle for Charity Hicks in Detroit June 5, 2014.

Protest against U.S. wars, held on the sixth anniversary of the U.S. war on Iraq.

Freedom Rider: America’s War Crime in Iraq

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

June 17, 2014

Presidents Obama and Bush: same agenda in Middle East.

For the people of the Middle East, the American war never ended; it continued under the brutal, U.S.-backed jihadists who ravaged Syria, and have struck at Iraq with a vengeance. In the United States, George Bush gets the blame for the Iraq War while the First Black President reignites the region with his proxy wars and apocalyptic threats. “Imperialism is still on the move and now has a more shrewd personification in the person of Barack Obama.”

“Iran is now more of a “frenemy” because it supports Iraqi president Maliki against the ISIS threat.”

Beginning in 1991 the United States government brought what has become a never ending hell to Iraq. President George H.W. Bush’s war that year was followed by devastating sanctions which were continued by presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. It was bad enough that 500,000 children died because of shortages of food and medicine but in 2003 Bush the younger and his henchmen and women rolled the dice on invasion and an occupation that lasted for more than ten years. The Project for a New American Century, the 21^st century version of Manifest Destiny, demanded a Pax Americana which set out to make the United States the master of the world.

“Shock and Awe:” U.S. invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003

It is unfortunate that Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, and company became the only faces of American aggression. They are indeed responsible for the 2003 invasion but imperialism is still on the move and now has a more shrewd personification in the person of Barack Obama.The corporate media have quite a lot to answer for in their reporting of the Iraqi and American relationship. They take their cue from whoever is in the White House and repeat what countless spokespeople tell them to write and to broadcast. After having accepted the Bush administration policy of embedding journalists with American troops, Iraq was then ignored and disappeared from the consciousness of this country. Recent events have made Iraq a focus of attention once again and the news is still terrible for the people of that country.“The history of American and Saudi collusion to destabilize that region is a long and sad tale.”

War crime: ISIS operatives execute police and soldiers in open field.

ISIS, translated into English as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is the latest head of the fundamentalist Jihadi hydra created by the United States and gulf monarchies. ISIS is making huge territorial gains as the Iraqi army collapses in its wake. The history of American and Saudi collusion to destabilize that region is a long and sad tale. For many years these partners in crime have left a trail of death and devastation in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria as well as in Iraq.

Now the propaganda that Americans have been fed by two presidents and their helpers in the press is falling apart. They have to explain why Iran, a country depicted as our mortal enemy, may end up saving the Iraqi government. Iran has also been devastated by United States sanctions and its very destruction has been openly advocated by Israel and numerous administrations and members of Congress. Iran is now more of a “frenemy” because it supports Iraqi president Maliki against the ISIS threat.

Iraqi baby deformed by depleted uranium.

After the deaths of one million people, after the hellish destruction of Fallujah, after the babies deformed by depleted uranium, Iraqis are again fleeing from the disaster of American intervention. As politicians are trotted out to defend their lies and the likes of Tony Blair attempt to deflect responsibility for their evil acts, it is important to remember the extent of the decades long crime.The press[15] and politicians may speak in terms of the 5,000 American lives lost or the astronomical sums spent, but it is the ongoing war of American terror that must be remembered.

The depiction of George W. Bush as the villain of bad judgment and lies is certainly true, but America’s violence and commission of war crimes should be the central issue when Iraq is discussed so that Democratic Party imperialists aren’t permitted to do likewise.

“They have to explain why Iran, a country depicted as our mortal enemy, may end up saving the Iraqi government.”

Very few Americans remember that millions of people around the world foresaw the calamity and acted to try and prevent it. Not only were there huge protests in many nations but there was serious discussion of the extent of American criminality. The World Tribunal on Iraq[16] held a series of meetings from November 2003 through June 2005 in New York, London, Rome, Lisbon, Stockholm, Mumbai, Tunis, Hiroshima, Beirut and other cities.

Participants in World Tribunal on Iraq

The culminating session in Istanbul produced a Declaration of the Jury of Conscience[17] which spelled out in stark detail the violations of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremburg Principles. The tribunal spared no one, condemning the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom for acts of aggression and the United Nations Security Council for its inaction. One of the tribunal’s charges is particularly prescient:“Engaging in policies to wage permanent war on sovereign nations. Syria and Iran have already been declared as potential targets. In declaring a ‘global war on terror,’ the US government has given itself the exclusive right to use aggressive military force against any target of its choosing. Ethnic and religious hostilities are being fueled in different parts of the world.”

CIA-led Libyan “rebels” targeted Black Libyans for lynchings and massacres.

As the politicians and pundits scramble for cover remember the words of the tribunal. Barack Obama knows that Bush was condemned more for sending American troops to fight overseas than for the substance of what he did. Obama can’t be allowed to use ISIS and similar groups to attack Syria without also paying a price. Democrats can’t defend Obama’s destruction of Libya or carrying out “kill list” assassinations without being called out as complicit as the neo-cons of the Bush era. Ultimately they are all neo-cons and the so-called “mistake” of the Iraq war will be revisited again unless American imperialism is called just that.Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com.[18] Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com. .

Source URL:http://blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-america%E2%80%99s-war-crime-iraq

Links:

[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/war-against-syria

[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/us-iran-threats ‘

[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/susan-rice-iraq

[4] http://blackagendareport.com/taxonomy/term/1439

[5] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/jihadist-wars

[6] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/isis-attack-iraq

[7] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/iraq-war

[8] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/iraq-sanctions

[9] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/gulf-war

[10] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/donald-rumsfeld-iraq

[11] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/colin-powell-iraq

[12] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/cheney-iraq

[13] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/bush-wars

[15] http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/06/11/iraq-is-a-place-where-americans-suffered/

[16] http://www.tni.org/archives/mil-docs_wti

[17] http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2005/08/320190.html [18] http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/

Renisha McBride’s mother Monica McBride (r) and sister grieve after preliminary exam victory against her killer Theodore Wafer Dec. 19, 2013.

In pre-trial hearing, judge admits all transcripts, tapes of 911 calls and Wafer statements at prosecution’s request 

Defense alleges Wafer “feared” Black teen, wants to insert their witness Dr. Spitz during prosecution case 

By Diane Bukowski 

June 21, 2014

Renisha McBride, 19 when shot to death by Theodore Wafer, 54.

DETROIT—Renisha McBride’s mother Monica McBride sat quietly crying and rocking slightly side to side, while her father Walter Ray Simmons at one point leaned over and put his head in his hands, during a motion hearing June 20 on the second-degree-murder, manslaughter trial of her killer, Theodore Wafer.

Dearborn Heights resident Wafer, 54, sat in the row behind them with a smug smile on his face before the case was called, in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Margaret Hathaway.

Wafer admittedly opened his locked, solid front door and used a 12-guage shotgun to shoot 19-year-old McBride in the face as she stood on his porch in a light blue hoodie, unarmed and evidently dazed after an automobile accident half a mile away. Many have compared the killing of the young Detroiter to that of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, contending racism was at the root of both killings.

Rally for justice for Renisha outside Dearborn Heights police HQ Nov. 7, 2013.

Wafer did not call 911 until after shooting the teen, reporting only, “Uh, yes, I just shot somebody on my front porch with a shotgun, banging on my door. I live at 16812 W. Outer Drive. Thank you.”

Wayne County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Timothy Kenny earlier granted a defense motion to recuse the first judge selected, Judge Qiana Lillard, who is Black, on a claim that she had ties with members of the Prosecutor’s office. Kenny is a member of the ultraconservative Federalist Society.

Wayne Co. Circuit Court Judge Dana Margaret Hathaway.

Judge Hathaway heard five motions filed by the defense and prosecution, with remaining motions to be heard Thursday June 28.

“The jury pool’s minds have been poisoned by arguments that aren’t the facts,” Wafer’s defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter contended, arguing for a jury questionnaire to be sent out prior to the trial opening July 21, 2014. Hathaway denied the motion, ruling that it would duplicate “voir dire” questioning of the jury in person.

She granted a motion by the prosecution in which the defense concurred, to have a jury pool of at least 200 instead of the 50-60 usually empaneled. The trial is expected to last three weeks and include at least 35 witnesses.

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Terry Anderson argued strongly against an unusual defense motion to have their expert witness, Dr. Werner Spitz, testify immediately after Wayne County Assistant Medical Examiner Kilak Kesha. Kesha gave lengthy testimony during Wafer’s preliminary exam that Wafer “pulpified” the teen-ager’s brain, from a likely distance of three feet, with numerous shotgun pellets, shooting through a screen door.

Theodore Wafer during earlier arraignment on the information.

“It is our case, and our burden (of proof),” Anderson said. “We should not have our case interrupted with the defense’s strategy. It would be overwhelming to the jury to have two technical witnesses testify back to back. Dr. Spitz should testify as part of the case in chief of the defense.”

Judge Hathaway discounted a defense argument that Spitz’s time was constrained due to the limited availability of his office manager, who Carpenter said accompanies him everywhere. Judge Hathaway said she would rule on the motion at the hearing June 28.

Spitz, now 88, is a world-renowned forensics pathologist but did not participate in the initial autopsy.

Judge Hathaway granted the prosecution’s motion to admit video/audiotapes and transcripts of three 911 emergency calls, two from Carmen Beasley of Detroit, who called 911 after McBride’s car crashed in front of her house, and the one from Wafer after he shot the teen.

20th Circuit Court Judge David Turfe, who bound Wafer over on all charges.

The prosecution also moved to admit audio/videotapes and transcripts of Wafer’s conversations with Dearborn Heights police while he was in their car after the shooting, and of a statement he made to them at their headquarters that night. Carpenter objected to admission of the transcripts.

Anderson said the prosecution would likely use the evidence to impeach Wafer if he testifies. The prosecution objected to the admission of the police headquarters videotape during the preliminary exam on the basis that Wafer himself was present and could be cross-examined.

Twentieth District Court Judge David Turfe agreed, and barred the showing of the videotape at that time.

Death house: Theodore Wafer’s residence in Dearborn Heights.

Carpenter said, “I strongly object to the admission of the transcripts . . .this case is about what Theodore Wafer felt like at the time he shot [McBride]. In the police car he kept saying “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod.”

She claimed the transcripts would not show the fear in his voice. Then she asked that the jury only review any tapes in the courtroom itself, not the jury room.

Judge Hathaway admitted both the transcripts and audio/videotapes.

She said, “The jury will have the opportunity to look at and hear the tapes and review the transcripts as often as they want.”

Gun expert with shotgun used to kill Renisha McBride testified at preliminary exam it could not be fired accidentally.

Daily media coverage of the hearing focused largely on Carpenter’s claim that Wafer feared for his life, including a Detroit Free Press headline, “Dearborn Heights porch shooter’s defense says case is all about fear.However, testimony at the preliminary exam showed that Wafer had to go into a back bedroom to get his shotgun, return to the front door, open it, and then shoot McBride in the face although there was no evidence she was armed.

In binding McBride over on charges of Second-Degree murder, Manslaughter – Death By Weapon Aimed with Intent But Without Malice, and Felony Firearms, Judge Turfe questioned why Wafer didn’t call 911 BEFORE opening the door if he feared for his life.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announces charges against Wafer Nov. 15, 2013. Assistant Prosecutors on the case are (second from left) Terry Anderson and Danielle Hagaman-Clark.

 Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy had to order the Dearborn Heights police, who first released Wafer without charges, to do a more thorough investigation of the case. They did a second crime scene review Nov. 11, during which they discovered a key piece of evidence, the perforated front door screen, in Wafer’s basement.

To date, Wafer has not spent a day in jail for McBride’s killing, despite the fact that bond is not normally issued in such cases. Second-degree murder is a capital charge carrying up to life in prison.

Malice Green painting by Benny Israel at the site of his death, 23rd and Warren in Detroit.

Next week, motions will include one for a change of venue from Wayne County due to the defense’s claim that publicity on the case has featured charges of racism. Since the abolition of Recorders’ Court in 1999 by the state legislature, however, the majority of Wayne County jury panels have been white.

Out-state legislators voted to abolish the court, which drew its jurors and judges solely from Detroit, in the wake of a Recorders’ Court jury verdict that two white police officers, Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, were guilty of second-degree murder in the 1992 beating death of Malice Green, a Black Detroiter.

Renisha McBride’s aunt Bernita Spinks at preliminary exam Dec. 19, 2013.

The defense is additionally moving to admit evidence about crime statistics in Wafer’s Dearborn Heights neighborhood, and text messages, photos, and school records of Renisha McBride. The defense claims they show McBride, who had never been convicted of any crime, had an aggressive side.

Her aunt Bernita Spinks, however, told VOD during the preliminary exam, “Renisha didn’t rip and run in the streets. She didn’t hang out at bars. She was a homebody, a sweetheart who stayed to herself. She was loving and kindhearted. While other people her age would be home sleeping, Renisha would be at her job [as a temporary Ford worker] at 4 a.m.”

After the pre-trial hearing, Spinks told Channel Four news,  “There’s a phone, you even opened the door. You took the time to load the gun. It’s all right there.” Regarding the jury, she said, “You have a mind, you have eyes, you should know right from wrong. All I’m going to say is the right decision will be made.”

Related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/12/21/theodore-wafer-to-stand-trial-for-2nd-degree-murder-other-charges-in-death-of-renisha-mcbride/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/16/renisha-mcbrides-killer-theodore-wafer-charged-with-2nd-degree-murder-other-felonies-free-on-bond/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/13/worthy-has-renisha-mcbride-police-report-sign-petition-to-bring-full-charges-vs-killer/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/09/justice-for-renisha-mcbride-detroits-trayvon-martin-dearborn-hts-homeowner-is-theodore-paul-wafer/

City retirees protest at bankruptcy hearing Aug. 19, 2013.

Retirees hold $7.4 billion in claims, other “impaired” classes: $3.8 billion

Retiree groups, unions sell out Detroit while Puerto Rico threatens general strike

By Diane Bukowski

 Analysis

June 17, 2014

DETROIT – A VOD analysis of Detroit bankruptcy claims shows that Detroit retirees hold the majority of votes on the current Plan of Adjustment (POA), and can at least stall drastic cuts to their pensions, annuity savings plans, and health care benefits with a “NO” vote.

“Impaired” classes who face losses are the only ones allowed to vote, according to Chapter 9 statutes. Votes are weighted according to claim amounts. If the total vote represents more than half the amount of impaired claims, it prevails, whether “yes” or “no.”

Retirees hold majorityof claims at $7.4 billion, can stall bankruptcy with NO vote.

Retirees hold a total of $7.4 billion in Class 10, 11 and 12 claims (Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System, Detroit General Retirement System, and OPEB benefits), according to figures in the POA. Other impaired classes hold a total of $3.8 billion. These include Certificates of Participation (COPS) investors, Unlimited and Limited Tax General Obligation (ULTGO AND LGTBO) bondholders, and Downtown Development Authority claims. (Click on DB Claims chart for list of classes and claims.)

Unimpaired bondholders cannot vote on the plan. They include Department of Water and Sewerage, General Obligation, HUD, and Parking Department creditors, who will be paid a total of at least $5.6 billion if the majority of those in the impaired classes vote “YES.”

Detroit retiree Gloria Jones: VOTE NO!!!

“I say NO, NO TO ALL OF IT,” retiree Gloria Jones told VOD. “I’m not giving up my right to fight in court at a later date. It’s unconstitutional, all of it.”Jones said she has not even received a ballot yet, although she retired on duty disability in 1991, and transitioned to regular retirement in 2010, calling into question the accuracy of the balloting procedures. This author, a retiree, has received a separate ballot for OPEB benefits (Class 12), while others she has talked to have not.

Add to that the chaos caused by the re-issue of at least 3,000 ballots because they had incorrect figures.

“I feel equally compelled to caution you that whether you vote “Yes” or “No”, the honest counting of that vote is essential,” mayoral candidate Tom Barrow wrote. “Only blind trust in Snyder and Orr would cause you to be so trusting as to not be suspicious where the people counting your life altering ballot are doing it all the way in California…where you, your friends and interested folks are NOT…why? . . the group doing the counting [KCC] is one recommended by the very law firm [Jones Day] which brought you to this unwarranted bankruptcy and has a long routine business relationship with the law firm.”

Regardless of the vote’s outcome, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes has the ability to “cram down” the plan if even one impaired class accepts it. So far, deals have been worked out with impaired creditors ULTGO bondholders, who have agreed to receive 74 percent of their claim, $388 million, while COPS swapholders have agreed to $85 million. Orr has a proposal in the plan to pay 40 percent of the entire COPS outstanding debt of $150 billion.

Puerto Rican teachers struck for 2 days in Feb. 2014; won Supreme Court decision striking down changes to their pensions.

“DRCEA sold our asses out,” retiree Jones declared, referring to Shirley Lightsey’s Detroit Retired City Employees Association. Despite the power retirees hold, it is astounding that the leadership of the retirement systems and unions is caving in to Orr.

Even if Orr opts to “cram down” the POA, unions across Puerto Rico have shown what can be done. There, they have threatened a general strike like the one they carried out in 2009 in opposition to the imposition of a Detroit-style austerity plan, aided also by Jones Day  Puerto Rican teachers conducted a two-day strike in February. In April, the Puerto Rican Supreme Court struck down cuts in their pensions. Rotating strikes by other unions including bus drivers and ferry workers are hitting constantly in preparation for the general strike.

AFSCME”S Ed McNeil is on the court-appointed Official Committee of Retirees, whose law firm Denton’s sent out a letter campaigning for a “Yes” vote.

But lily-livered leaders of retiree associations, the retirement systems, and the unions in Detroit are recommending retirees vote “Yes” on a plan that has no guarantees for their life-time support whatever.

Both the DRCEA and the Detroit Retired Police and Firefighters Association (DPFFA), neither of which represent all retirees, are recommending a “Yes” vote. Denton’s, the law firm representing the court-appointed Official Committee of Retirees, has also weighed in for a “yes” vote. (Not surprisingly, AFSCME’s Ed McNeil shoved Rose Roots, president of AFSCME Retirees Sub-Chapter 98, aside to sit on that committee.)

The city’s two retirement systems are on the verge of recommending a Yes vote, as has been demonstrated during their two general meetings, which one retiree termed “dog and pony shows.”

This is despite the fact that the retirement systems and unions have seven lawsuits against Rhodes’ bankruptcy eligibility ruling pending at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, backed by amicus briefs from the largest pension system in the country, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CALPERS), the AARP, and others. A “Yes” vote allegedly means giving up any and all appeal rights.

So far, Rhodes says, at least 600 individuals “not represented by attorneys” have filed objections to the POA before the deadline of July 11. Rhodes, however, set up oral hearings only for those filed prior to June 10, on July 15, 2014, at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., at the U.S. Federal Courthouse, Rm 712, 231 W. Lafayette in downtown Detroit. (Click on Court hearing docket5264 ObjectionToPOA for Rhodes’ full order.)

Rhodes said in his original order regarding objections that they must cite specific parts of the Bankruptcy Code.

VOD has compiled the following lengthy list of code violations, which will be submitted to the court.

11 U.S. CODE § 109 – WHO MAY BE A DEBTOR

An entity may be a debtor under chapter 9 of this title if and only if such entity—

(1) is a municipality:

(3) is insolvent;

(4) desires to effect a plan to adjust such debts.

(C) is unable to negotiate with creditors because such negotiation is impracticable.  

Kevyn Orr is NOT the City of Detroit.

OBJECTIONS:

• Kevyn Orr is not a municipality, but an appointed agent of the state of Michigan.
• Detroit is not insolvent according to the Nov 2013 report from DEMOS. None of the three major witnesses at the eligibility hearings were expert witnesses, so were not qualified to testify on insolvency.
• Neither the people of Detroit, nor any elected official representing them, have indicated their desire to file bankruptcy.
• A council representing all the city’s unions negotiated a plan to save Detroit hundreds of millions of dollars with Mayor Dave Bing in 2012, but Gov. Snyder prevented the City Council from voting to approve the plan.

11 U.S. Code § 903 – RESERVATION OF STATE POWER TO CONTROL MUNICIPALITIES

This chapter does not limit or impair the power of a State to control, by legislation or otherwise, a municipality of or in such State in the exercise of the political or governmental powers of such municipality, including expenditures for such exercise, but—

State law prescribing a method of composition of indebtedness of such municipality may not bind any creditor that does not consent to such composition; and 

(2) a judgment entered under such a law may not bind a creditor that does not consent to such composition.

Protesters confront Gov. Snyder as he visited Detroit Nov. 1, 2012.

OBJECTION:

• Judge Rhodes evidently used this statute to recognize the Emergency Manager Law, PA 436, but it is still subject to ongoing litigation in a higher court, the U.S. District Court.
• Additionally, hundreds of thousands of residents of the majority-Black Michigan cities under the control of Emergency Managers, as well as 53 percent of the state electorate re: PA 4, have expressed their opposition to the entirety of these EM laws.
• THEREFORE NO DETROIT RESIDENT, WORKER OR RETIREE should be bound by ANY PROVISION OF PA 436, or by any act of dictator Kevyn Orr, appointed under PA 436.

11 U.S. CODE § 904 – LIMITATION ON JURISDICTION AND POWERS OF COURT

Notwithstanding any power of the court, unless the debtor consents or the plan so provides, the court may not, by any stay, order, or decree, in the case or otherwise, interfere with—

Wastewater Treatment Plant worker during wildcat strike against decimation of DWSD Sept. 30, 2012.

(1) any of the political or governmental powers of the debtor;

(2) any of the property or revenues of the debtor; or

(3) the debtor’s use or enjoyment of any income-producing property.

OBJECTION:

• Judge Rhodes evidently has interpreted this key section of Chapter 9 to mean the debtor has consented to such alterations, recognizing Kevyn Orr as the debtor.
• Litigation on that matter is pending in higher courts including U.S District Court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. As Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellerman shouted out at one hearing, “JONES DAY [Kevyn Orr’s allegedly previous employer] IS NOT THE CITY OF DETROIT!” No legal representative of the city has consented to the massive dismemberment of Detroit taking place under Chapter 9.

11 U.S. CODE § 921 – PETITION AND PROCEEDINGS RELATING TO PETITION  

(c)After any objection to the petition, the court, after notice and a hearing, may dismiss the petition if the debtor did not file the petition in good faith or if the petition does not meet the requirements of this title.

OBJECTIONS:

• Kevyn Orr did NOT file the petition in good faith, and Judge Rhodes is not hearing the case in good faith.
• The Detroit bankruptcy was planned by various banks, the law firms of Jones Day, Ernst & Young, Miller Buckfire/Stifel and others hired by Gov. Rick Snyder as early as 2011, long before the filing, as proven by a lengthy list of emails among the parties. It was deliberately filed five minutes before Michigan 30^th Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina issued an order barring Gov. Snyder from approving the bankruptcy filing.
• Judge Steven Rhodes chaired a forum on Chapter 9 and Emergency Managers on Oct. 10, 2012, in which five out of six speakers were supporters of both, including EM trainers and a co-author of Public Act 4, as well as Charles Moore of Conway McKenzie, a chief NON-EXPERT witness during the eligibility trial. ORR SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF DUE TO THIS BLATANT CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes (in red tie) with participants in forum on Chapter 9 and EM’s (l to r) Frederick Headen of State Treasury who has recommended takeover of numerous cities; Edward Plawecki, EM trainers Douglas Bernstein and Judy O’Neill, also a co-author of PA4, and Charles Moore of Conway McKenzie, a chief witness at bankruptcy trial.

11 U.S. CODE § 922 – AUTOMATIC STAY OF ENFORCEMENT OF CLAIMS AGAINST THE DEBTOR  

(a) A petition filed under this chapter operates as a stay, in addition to the stay provided by section 362 of this title, applicable to all entities, of–(1) the commencement or continuation, including the issuance or employment of process, of a judicial, administrative, or other action or proceeding against an officer or inhabitant of the debtor that seeks to enforce a claim against the debtor; and (2) the enforcement of a lien on or arising out of taxes or assessments owed to the debtor.

OBJECTION:

• Judge Rhodes stayed all claims not only against the “debtor,” but against state officials including Gov. Snyder, the State Treasurer, and other state officials NOT COVERED UNDER THIS PROVISION, the actual perpetrators of the bad-faith bankruptcy filing.

11 U.S. CODE § 930 – DISMISSAL 

(a)After notice and a hearing, the court may dismiss a case under this chapter for cause, including—

(b)The court shall dismiss a case under this chapter if confirmation of a plan under this chapter is refused.

OBJECTION:

• 

  GRAND THEFT DETROIT, not GRAND BARGAIN.

  Refusal means a vote by “impaired” parties whose total claims constitute more than half of impaired claims. As noted at the beginning of this article, city retiree claims total $7.4 Billion. Claims by “impaired” bondholders and banks total approximately $2.2 Billion, giving retirees the upper hand if they VOTE NO. Click on GRAND THEFT OR Grand Bargain 2 to read Concerned Detroit Citizens, Active Employees and Retirees’ summary on issues in bankrupty.

• The City proposes to pay banks and bondholders as a first priority out of the general fund. Nothing is allocated for retirees out of the general fund until at least 2023. The “Grand Bargain” from the DIA and State amounts to a piddling $716 million, is not set to be finalized until Dec. 31, 2014, and states directly that it is NOT BINDING ON THE PARTIES. In exchange the Detroit City Council just voted to give away its entire art collection, worth billions, to a private trust. WHO’S ZOOMING WHO?

11 U.S. CODE § 943 – CONFIRMATION

The court shall confirm the plan if—the plan complies with the provisions of this chapter; all amounts to be paid by the debtor or by any person for services or expenses in the case or incident to the plan have been fully disclosed and are reasonable;

the debtor is not prohibited by law from taking any action necessary to carry out the plan;

(7) the plan is in the best interests of creditors and is feasible.

Protester demands an end to PA 436, unconstitutional Emergency Manager law.

OBJECTIONS:  

• Numerous provisions violated as indicated.
• The payment of at least $11.9 BILLION to the banks from the city’s general fund, and $0 to retirees from that fund, IS NOT REASONABLE.
• PA 436, under which Kevyn Orr operates, is still subject to ongoing litigation. The U.S. Constitution prohibits government by unelected dictators.
• The plan is in the best interests of the banks and corporations, not the interests of city residents, workers and retirees.

11 U.S. CODE § 1129 – CONFIRMATION OF PLAN

(a)The court shall confirm a plan only if all of the following requirements are met:

(3)The plan has been proposed in good faith and not by any means forbidden by law.

(B) the proponent of the plan has disclosed the identity of any insider that will be employed or retained by the reorganized debtor, and the nature of any compensation for such insider.

(10) If a class of claims is impaired under the plan, at least one class of claims that is impaired under the plan has accepted the plan, determined without including any acceptance of the plan by any insider.

(11) Confirmation of the plan is not likely to be followed by the liquidation, or the need for further financial reorganization, of the debtor or any successor to the debtor under the plan, unless such liquidation or reorganization is proposed in the plan.

Slavemaster Rick Snyder has discriminated against the state’s majority Black cities through the use of EM laws.

(13) The plan provides for the continuation after its effective date of payment of all retiree benefits, as that term is defined in section 1114 of this title, at the level established pursuant to subsection (e)(1)(B) or (g) of section 1114 of this title, at any time prior to confirmation of the plan, for the duration of the period the debtor has obligated itself to provide such benefits. 

(b) (1) . . . the court, on request of the proponent of the plan, shall confirm the plan notwithstanding the requirements of such paragraph if the plan does not discriminate unfairly, and is fair and equitable, with respect to each class of claims or interests that is impaired under, and has not accepted, the plan.

OBJECTION:

• Not proposed in good faith as indicated above; PA 436 forbidden by U.S. Constitution.
• Snyder, Orr, law firms not disclosed as insider perpetrators of bad-faith bankruptcy filing. Insider role in acceptance of swaps agreement by UBS AG, BOA; acceptance of 74 percent payment to Unlimited General Obligation bondholders; state itself has two votes, not disclosed in list of claims.
• It is doubtful whether the City of Detroit will survive as an independent municipality after implementation of plan.
• “Retiree benefits” refers to health care obligations; they have been cut drastically prior to the confirmation of the plan.Under the new plan, there is absolutely no guarantee they will ever be paid. See 11 U.S. Code § 1114 – Payment of insurance benefits to retired employees. (below this Section.)
• Plan clearly discriminates against city workers and retirees, the majority of whom are Black, as well as city residents, through such measures as the proposed takeover of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which will lead to higher rates, It has already led to tens of thousands of water shut-offs, threatening the life and well-being of city residents and their families.

11 U.S. CODE § 1114 – PAYMENT OF INSURANCE BENEFITS TO RETIRED EMPLOYEES

(a) the term “retiree benefits” means payments to any entity or person for the purpose of providing or reimbursing payments for retired employees and their spouses and dependents, for medical, surgical, or hospital care benefits, or benefits in the event of sickness, accident, disability, or death under any plan, fund, or program (through the purchase of insurance or otherwise) maintained or established in whole or in part by the debtor prior to filing a petition commencing a case under this title. 

(d)The court, upon a motion by any party in interest, and after notice and a hearing, shall order the appointment of a committee of retired employees if the debtor seeks to modify or not pay the retiree benefits or if the court otherwise determines that it is appropriate . . . 

(e)(1)Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the debtor in possession . . .shall timely pay and shall not modify any retiree benefits, except that—the court, on motion of the trustee or authorized representative, and after notice and and a hearing, may order modification of such payments . . .the trustee and the authorized representative of the recipients of those benefits may agree to modification of such payments, after which such benefits as modified shall continue to be paid by the trustee. 

(f) (1) Subsequent to filing a petition and prior to filing an application seeking modification of the retiree benefits, the trustee shall— 

(A) make a proposal to the authorized representative of the retirees, based on the most complete and reliable information available at the time of such proposal, which provides for those necessary modifications in the retiree benefits that are necessary to permit the reorganization of the debtor and assures that all creditors, the debtor and all of the affected parties are treated fairly and equitably; and

(k) (1)Upon the filing of an application for modifying retiree benefits, the court shall schedule a hearing to be held not later than fourteen days after the date of the filing of such application. All interested parties may appear and be heard at such hearing. Adequate notice shall be provided to such parties at least ten days before the date of such hearing. The court may extend the time for the commencement of such hearing for a period not exceeding seven days where the circumstances of the case, and the interests of justice require such extension, or for additional periods of time to which the trustee and the authorized representative agree.

The late, world-renowned General Baker, a UAW retiree, protests the use of VEBA’s in the auto industry.

OBJECTIONS:

• THE CITY HAS REPEATEDLY CUT RETIREE HEALTH BENEFITS DURING THE TERM OF THIS BANKRUPTCY, PRIOR TO CONFIRMATION OF THE PLAN. WHEN DID THEY HOLD A HEARING ABOUT THIS?
• How are retirees being treated fairly and equitably when their insurance costs have skyrocketed, some to $500 and more a month?
• WHERE IS OUR HEARING ON THE NEW PLAN?
• Under the 4^th Plan of Adjustment, retiree benefits will come from two VEBA’s (Voluntary Employee Benefit Associations)  which are nothing but bank trusts which DO NOT GUARANTEE payment of ANY health benefits (stated clearly in the POA).  The Court-appointed Official Committee of Retirees (OCR), the Detroit Retired City Employees Association (DRCEA), and the Detroit Police and Firefighters Association will sit on the VEBA boards. This opportunity to make money off the VEBA’s clearly motivated the OCR, DRCEA and DPFFA endorsements of the Plan.

Related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/11/puerto-rico-unions-threaten-strike-against-austerity-budget-jones-day-law-firm-involved/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/07/why-im-voting-no-on-the-grand-bargain/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/20/racist-detroit-bankruptcy-plan-11-5-billion-for-banks-0-for-retirees-vote-no-or-lose-appeal-rights/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/16/detroit-retirees-blast-bankruptcy-deal-in-lansing-drceas-lightsey-sells-out/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/14/state-bills-target-detroit-assets-in-bankruptcy/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/12/dccr-update-on-pensions-in-detroit-bankruptcy-plan-vote-no/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/05/aarp-joins-other-groups-in-legal-support-for-detroit-retirees/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/03/no-detroit-bankruptcy-deal-may-day-marchers-block-detroit-streets-banks-natl-retiree-systems-blast-rhodes/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/04/29/days-of-rage-hearing-on-pa-436-april-30-shut-down-detroit-may-1/

http://www.workers.org/articles/2014/01/22/teachers-strike-shuts-puerto-ricos-schools/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/15/us-usa-puertorico-teachers-idUSBREA0E13P20140115

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/11/puertorico-pensions-idUSL2N0N325N20140411

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/06/05/work-stoppages-at-public-firms-in-puerto-rico-against-cuts/?intcmp=obinsite

“In Harlem and elsewhere in New York City, the tipping point has clearly been passed.”

June 4, 2014

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

The term “tipping point” used to be synonymous with white flight from the cities. Now that Blacks are being forced from high priced urban neighborhoods, what is the “tipping point” for maintaining the Black urban presence? “How many upscale, mostly white people does it take to make a neighborhood, and ultimately whole cities – like San Francisco – unaffordable and downright hostile to Black habitation?”

Back in the early Sixties, sociologists began to use the term “tipping point” to describe white response to the entrance of Blacks into formerly white neighborhoods. The raw statistics showed clearly that such “tipping points” existed, although sociologists argued about the dynamics of precisely when white exits turned into sudden, wholesale flight. Certainly, real estate agents and developers understood the phenomenon, having set it in motion in city after city in the Forties and Fifties in order to make a killing in the market. So-called “block-busters” played on racist hysteria, buying up white properties at rock bottom and selling them at inflated prices to Blacks desperate to escape densely-packed ghettos.

The churning of neighborhoods generated billions in profits and changed the face of America in a remarkably short period of time. Ultimately, whites’ refusal to share urban space with Blacks created an American racial and economic geography unique in the world, in which the Black and brown poor resided in hollowed out, shrunken, capital-deprived central cities surrounded by a belt of suburban white wealth – the exact opposite of the historical world model of urban development.

America, which invented modern white racism through the establishment of Black chattel slavery, had once again been reshaped through the socio-economic dynamics of white racism.

For more than half a century, racial tipping points referred primarily to the behavior of white people, a predictor of white flight, creating new spaces for Black habitation in the cities. But, racism is irrational, as were the socio-economic landscape created by white racism, with whites traveling ridiculous distances to find racially exclusive environments at affordable prices. The corporate class longed for the centralized amenities that only big cities can provide, and finance capitalists looked forward to trillions in added values if only the Blacks and browns could be evicted from urban real estate.

“It is more like a purge, an ethnic cleansing.”

Finance capital, corporate muscle, and the political parties that serve them have set in motion the new phenomenon of Black flight from the cities, and white return. Unlike white flight of the previous era, the current Black exodus is mainly involuntary and economic. In reality, it is more like a purge, an ethnic cleansing based on the reality that, in a racist society, the very presence of substantial numbers of Black people brings down the value of land and other assets.

Mogul Dan Gilbert’s vision for Capitol Park in downtown Detroit. Hundreds of mostly Black, senior and disabled residents of the subsidized Griswold Apartments, shown at right, have been driven out effective May 31. Other senior buildings located in the area will soon follow suit, to make way for luxury condos.

Today, the question in city after city is, What is the tipping point for maintaining Black populations? How many upscale, mostly white people does it take to make a neighborhood, and ultimately whole cities – like San Francisco – unaffordable and downright hostile to Black habitation? In Harlem and elsewhere in New York City, the tipping point has clearly been passed, as it has in Washington DC, and will soon occur in Atlanta. Blacks are under siege – up against the tipping point – in Chicago. Even in cities such as Baltimore, where Black majorities make wholesale purges impractical – for the moment – targeted Black neighborhoods are rapidly tipping.

Outrageously, the governor of Michigan proposes to bring in a steady stream of upscale immigrants to dilute the 82 percent Black population of Detroit.

And yet, there is nothing approaching a national Black consensus on a response – which means the political tipping point may have already passed, and the purge of the cities will continue, without effective Black resistance.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Corruption in Wayne County Probate Court.

By Shea Howell

(submitted to VOD by Anita Peek of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development)

June 17, 2013

Week 63 of the occupation

Wayne Co. Chief Probate Milton Mack

Lennette Williams and her daughter Mailauni first came to public attention in 1998. Ms. Williams then challenged the Chief Judge of Wayne County Probate Court Milton Mack because of his mishandling of her $30 million settlement with Henry Ford Hospital. The money was intended to provide for her and Mailauni because of complications that had arisen during the birth of Mailauni, 16 years earlier.

Their case became a symbol of the corruption endemic in Probate court. Over the next decade stories abounded of lawyers and judges lining their pockets at the expense of clients who were often unable to defend themselves.In a thoughtful article in 2002 then Metro Times reporter Curt Guyette did an extensive expose of the corruption surrounding probate court. In the course of this article he quotes Ms. Williams saying, “I resent to have to keep coming through this court and be ripped off. It is wrong. I have told the truth. I have papers proving what I am saying and you have constantly turned a blind ear to it.”

Mailauni Williams is at bottom left in white dress with her mother Lennette Williams behind her in this earlier photo of members of the Original Detroit Coalition against Police Brutality. Arnetta Grable (center), Cornell Squires (behind her) and Arnetta Grable, Jr. were among those in court to support the WIlliams family June 13.

Last week, Ms. Williams not only found herself in court, but in jail. She was stripped of the guardianship of her daughter Mailauni, now a young adult, who sheriffs took from their home in late May. Judge Kathryn George ordered Ms. Williams locked up for 10 days for contempt of court.

It is hard to imagine why Ms. Williams would have anything other than contempt for a court process that has repeatedly placed her family at risk. Currently they are facing the possible loss of their home.

Without explanation, Judge George refused to accept the recommendation of the estate trustee, Walter Sakowski, that Monique Williams, Mailauni’s older sister, be granted custody. Mailauni [VOD: was first placed in a group home and is now under the guardianship of Attorney Mary Rowan, who immediately removed her from that location.]

In contrast to the intense battling going on in court, Guyette also describes the love and support Ms. Williams gives her children. As a single mother raising three children, often on income that was disrupted by court procedures, she managed to provide a home of love and affection. No one has ever alleged that she was anything other than a loving, supportive mother.

Caregiver beats young autistic woman, Vera Gossett, at Strathmoor Manor in Detroit.
That home is not linked to Faith Connections.

The same cannot be said for the system of group homes to which her daughter has been sent. Just last month the vicious beating of a young woman at Strathmoor Manor by a woman charged with her care made national news. No one thinks this was an isolated case.

Reports of the chaotic court proceedings emphasized the disrespect shown the family by the Judge. Voice of Detroit reported: “The judge’s demeanor showed that she was a racist,” said Cornell Squires of We the People for the People, who has worked with the Williams family for 20 years. “Her behavior was offensive to Lennette, her attorney, and all the Black people in the courtroom. It was unbecoming a judge. I’ve seen some wicked judges, but she is the worst. She crushed Mailauni by taking her away from her mother. We are going to ask for a federal investigation of this matter, and there needs to be a forensic audit of the Williams estate.”

Maryanne Godboldo (2nd from left) with her attorney Allison Folmar (center), child’s father Mubarak Hakim to Folmar’s right, after 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles dismissed criminal charges against her for the second time. Folmar also represents Lennette and Mailauni Williams.

The abuses in this case echo those of Maryanne Godboldo who defied a SWAT team in 2011 over her decision to cease administering a drug to her daughter that she thought harmful. Charges have been dismissed three separate times against Ms. Godboldo, who still faces a court hearing.

Ms. Williams is an original member of the Coalition Against Police Brutality. Edwards and Arnetta Grable, Cornell Squires of We the People for the People, and Elaine Steele and Anita Peek of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development support her.

Almost everyone in Detroit has a story to tell of abuses suffered at the hands of arbitrary uses of authority. Today, Ms. Williams symbolizes not only the abuses of a probate system, but the assault by unaccountable authorities on all that we love and value.

Related:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/16/shady-probate-judge-kathryn-george-jails-mom-seizes-daughter-and-estate/

http://www.wxyz.com/news/patient-at-detroit-adult-care-facility-beaten-by-woman-who-was-supposed-to-be-her-caregiver

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/25531122/video-caregiver-accused-of-beating-special-needs-patient

http://www.freep.com/article/20120720/NEWS02/120720045/Rosa-Parks-estate-Milton-Mack-Steven-Cohen

Newly-appointed GAL Mary S. Rowan (seated in blue dress) grabs Maulauni Williams’ arm as she berates VOD reporter (r) for covering the story in the courtroom. Pamela Reid of Faith Connections is at left, with Mailauni’s sister Monique Williams at center. The day after the hearing, Rowan seized Mailauni from Reid’s group home. Her whereabouts are currently unknown.

Lennette Williams given 10 days for “contempt of court,” loses guardianship of daughter Mailauni, access to birth lawsuit estate

 Grosse Pointe Farms cops, sheriffs seized Mailauni from home May 21

 State Supreme Court earlier removed Judge Kathryn George as Macomb Probate Court head for likely estate fraud

 By Diane Bukowski

June 15, 2014

Metro Times cover story on Lennette and Mailauni Williams, by Curt Guyette, July 10, 2012.

DETROIT – Mailauni Williams begged to hug her mother Lennette Williams and her sister before Judge Kathryn George ordered the mother jailed 10 days for contempt during a chaotic, hostile hearing June 13 in the chambers of Wayne County Probate Court Chief Judge Milton Mack.

“I am her daughter,” Mailauni cried out from the audience to the judge. “I just came to give her respect.” She told the judge “I cried,” when she was taken away from her mother during a raid May 22 by Grosse Pointe Farms police and deputy sheriffs.

She got up and hugged her mother during the hearing after she heard the judge berate her. Her temporary guardian, Pamela Reid of Faith Connections, took her out of the courtroom later so that she would not have to watch sheriffs put her mother under arrest.

Williams has been her child’s guardian for over 20 years, but George stripped her of that role. She also denied her access to a $30 million lifetime support settlement paid by Henry Ford Hospital for birth trauma that left Mailauni with cerebral palsy and her mother, now 62, with physical injuries.

Under Mack, that estate had already been substantially stripped by attorney fees, with mother and daughter relegated to monthly payments at the court’s whim. Investigative reporter Curt Guyette did a comprehensive expose of the family’s ongoing troubles in Wayne County Probate Court which was published in the Metro Times in 2002. (See link to “Mother and Child Rebellion” in “Related Stories.”)

Lennette and Mailauni Williams in 2002; photo Metro Times.

 Without access to those funds, Williams is in danger of losing the home she purchased for herself and Mailauni in Grosse Pointe Farms. She has been a full-time caregive for her daughter since her birth.

George, blatantly hostile towards Williams and her attorney, denied an alternate petition for guardianship from Mailauni’s sister Monique Williams, despite estate trustee Walter Sakowski’s recommendation in favor of it. She then appointed a white guardian ad litem, Mary S. Rowan. George said she would not consider any alternative for at least one year.

“The judge’s demeanor showed that she was a racist,” said Cornell Squires of We the People for the People, who has worked with the Williams family for 20 years. “Her behavior was offensive to Lennette, her attorney, and all the Black people in the courtroom. It was unbecoming a judge. I’ve seen some wicked judges, but she is the worst. She crushed Maulauni by taking her away from her mother. We are going to ask for a federal investigation of this matter, and there needs to be a forensic audit of the Williams estate.”

Macomb County Probate Court Judge Kathryn George was removed as Chief of that Court in 2008 for assigning most of her cases to an agency that an audit found had egregiously defrauded wards of the court.

Mailauni’s sister testified that she was petitioning for guardianship only as an alternative to the temporary guardianship of Faith Connections, enacted when Mailauni was seized. She told Folmar during the hearing that she felt Mailauni was safe with her mother.

But George said, “Lennette Williams has caused tremendous difficulty. She ran up estate bills, interfered with police and APS, and responded to the court not in a lawful manner. . . She is one of worst guardians I have ever seen from the standpoint of the court, based alone on what she has posted on the house, based on everything the court has witnessed and experienced.”

George then authorized MORE legal fees from the estate at the rate of $75 an hour to one Robert Kent.

Reid, who brought Mailauni to the hearing, testified about the young woman’s seizure from her home in Grosse Pointe Farms May 22 by carloads of city cops and sheriffs.

“She is a sweetheart,” Reid said of Mailauni. “She said she didn’t want to go anywhere. She also asked for her puppy and showed me how she taught him to say ‘I love you.’ She wanted me to speak to the police to be sure her mom was safe because there was a hole in the door.”

Home of Lennette and Mailauni Williams, where Grosse Pointe Farms police and sheriffs kicked in door May 21. This has been the only home Mailauni has had for most of her life.

Police kicked in the door after Adult Protective Services (APS) worker Hiram Williams went to the home, ostensibly for a “wellness visit,” according to testimony. Mailauni, however, was at the home of family friend Deborah Edwards at the time.

Lennette Williams testified she called Edwards to have Mailauni brought home when the APS worker appeared. Edwards told VOD that the APS worker actually left the home for two to three hours at the time, saying he was going to lunch. But he drafted a court order to seize Mailauni during that time, and returned with Grosse Pointe Farms police and sheriffs to take her. Police invaded the home, kicking down the door and pointing guns according to witness accounts.

“She didn’t want to die,” Folmar said. “My client wasn’t served with any order or warrant.”

Folmar is also the criminal defense attorney for Maryanne Godboldo, who stood off a SWAT team of Detroit police in 2011 for hours before they seized her daughter, to force her to take the dangerous drug Risperdal. Two judges have dismissed criminal charges against Godboldo three times, but she faces another court hearing June 25, 2014 at 9 a.m. in front of Judge Gregory Bill, who dismissed the charges earlier. In the interim, a hearing was held May 19 in front of Chief Judge Timothy Kenny, evidently to reinstate the charges after 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles dismissed them again.

Attorney Allison Folmar speaks to media about police arrest of Maryanne Godboldo, after court hearing July 8, 2011.

George gave Faith Connections temporary custody of Mailauni after her seizure. Reid took Mailauni to a group home on East Grand Boulevard. The morning after the June 13 hearing, Rowan went to the group home and removed Mailauni yet again, over Reid’s protests that she was safe and loved there. Her current residence is unknown.

“When the police and APS show up, they have all the authority,” George contended, citing Williams’ alleged failure to allow them in to her home and, earlier, to produce her daughter’s medical records as cause for finding her in contempt. She also showed photos of signs on Williams door threatening trespassers. She said she originally intended to jail Williams for 30 days.

Folmar objected to George’s presentation of her court clerk as an unsworn witness. The clerk read an email from the APS worker, who was not present at the hearing for cross-examination. Folmar also said she had the right to cross-examine police who seized Mailauni, who were not in the court, and to present witnesses on Williams’ behalf.

Grosse Pointe Farms police. The Williams family has faced racist harrassment for years in the predominantly white suburb of Detroit.

“There wasn’t any warrant or signed order, and they never showed one to the mother,” Folmar told VOD afterwards, “She can plaster her house with whatever signs she wants. They’ve been illegally kicking in her door for years. She didn’t have a fair chance to defend herself at that hearing. Judge George told me to shut up and sit down when I tried to advise my client in order to protect her.”

George held Folmar in contempt of court twice during the hearing, fining her $150.

“She clearly wanted to put Attorney Folmar in jail, too,” Squires commented.

At the outset of the hearing, Folmar, newly retained after many hearings where Williams had no attorney, asked for a new beginning.

Members of the Original Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality after they testified at a Police Commission hearing several years ago. Mailauni is at center in white dress, with her mother Lennette behind her; to her left is Arnetta Grable, and behind her is Cornell Squires. Grable spearheaded a 10-year campaign for justice for her son Lamar Grable, killed by Detroit police officer Eugene Brown in 1996.

“I spoke with my client and a team of people helping her,” Folmar said. “Despite [disorganized] conditions at the home, Maulauni was never in any danger. Ms. Williams just needed some help. This is a child who has known none other closer than her mom for her entire life. I’m here to assist, bridge the gap in communications, speak on behalf of Ms. Williams, because she believed her voice wasn’t being heard. I would respectfully ask the court to return Maulauni home, and provide whatever safeguards are necessary. Along with her team of loved ones, we will resolve the issues and protect the love between Maulauni and her mom.”

Family supporters present in court included Edwards and Arnetta Grable, both long-time friends of Williams, Cornell Squires of We the People for the People, who has worked with the family for over 20 years, Elaine Steele and Anita Peek of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, and Barbara Banks, whose daughter Starletta Banks lost custody of her three pre-school children in 2000. Banks said two of the children, now 18 and 19, went straight back home to their mother after aging out of the foster care system.

Then Detroit Councilwoman Joann Watson, from left, Lloyd Wesley, Jr., Detroit postmaster, Elaine Eason Steele, co-founder of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, and Sen. Carl Levin applaud at the unveiling of the Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday commemorative postage stamp at the Museum of African American History in Detroit today. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Folmar said she will file an emergency interlocutory appeal of George’s orders to the state Court of Appeals.

It is unclear how Judge George was appointed to handle a Wayne County Probate Court case. She is listed as a Macomb County Probate Court Judge. The Michigan State Supreme Court removed her as Chief Judge of the Macomb Court in Jan. 2008 for reasons including her appointment of a high number of cases to one agency, ADDMS Guardianship Services, her high rate of abstenteeism, and her questionable service in the Genesee County Probate Court during her tenure in Macomb County.

Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver

After reviewing an audit of the Macomb Probate Court, former State Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver wrote, “the Report confirms not only Judge George’s apparent inappropriate involvement with ADDMS guardian services, but also her apparent failure to properly oversee numerous guardianship cases. . . .The majority of the Report discusses the numerous problems in Judge George’s oversight of her cases, as well as Judge George’s questionable overuse of ADDMS.”

ADDMS was cited for double-billing estates and mismanaging their wards’ affairs, in numerous reports to the State Supreme Court Administrators’ Office filed by Macomb County Probate Court Register Donald Housey. Housey was later fired from his position and filed a whistleblowers’ lawsuit, which was dismissed by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He died of a heart attack at the age of 70.

Mother from www.StopGuardianbuse.org website, who her daughter says was badly abused by a guardian appointed by George.

After her demotion, George was barred from handling any cases involving wills and estates. She has been investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office,  and the state Judicial Tenure Commission, but no charges have been filed.

Among numerous reports of abuse in cases handled by George, the website for the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse, at www.StopGuardianAbuse.org, includes the following report by a daughter regarding a guardian appointed by George for her mother.

“My mother’s medical appointments were cancelled; medications were altered or eliminated. She broke her wrist but did not receive medical treatment, resulting in loss of function and a permanent ‘forked hand’ deformity. She suffered from undiagnosed illnesses and “bleeding”, untreated infections, concussions, facial lacerations, a reported broken arm, unexplained bruises and abrupt, acute vision loss unrelated to the fact that her prescription glasses were taken away upon assertion that she could no longer read. Her handicapped permit was “lost”. Two Adult Protective Services claims were investigated. The Guardian failed to return calls concerning her urgent health matters, medical advocacy, care and living arrangements.” 

Atty. Alan Polack, head of ADDMS guardianship services.

State Court Administrator Carl Gromek said the Whall report cited other financial shenanigans by ADDMS.

“For example, in ‘numerous instances’ ADDMS sold wards’ vehicles without the bill of sale and a copy of the Secretary of State title. Real estate was sold at significantly less than market value,” Gromek said in an article in the Macomb Daily News. He added that ADDMS “sold the entire contents of a ward’s home and  petitioned to sell the ward’s home at significantly less than market price.After the ward petitioned to have ADDMS removed as conservator, ADDMS refused to turn over any of the proceeds from the sale unless the ward removed his petition.”

VOD is contacting Mack’s office for an explanation of Judge George’s role on the Wayne County Probate Court bench.

Little information is available on the attorney George appointed for Mailauni, Mary S. Rowan, but she also displayed a hostile demeanor towards the Williams family’s supporters as they gathered outside the courtroom.

Wayne County Probate Chief Judge Milton L. Mack Jr., (left) received the William W. Treat Award from Judge John W. Voorhees, president of the National College of Probate Judges, at the NCPJ’s fall conference. Mack appointed Kathryn George to hear Williams case.

Judge George in her order gave Rowan blanket control of Mailauni’s life and finances, asking her to evaluate at the end of one year whether Mailauni could be placed with her sister

VOD found the following comments about Rowan on two websites.

“She grinds up the elderly and turns them into cash (4/21/12),” a Yahoo commenter on its “All Law Firms” site said. “Ms. Rowan seems very unconcerned with the care and welfare of the patients which she takes guardianship over seems to have issues answering the phone and often seems unavailable for the duties which she has pledged to take care of for her clients” (1/25/12). “The Attorney Mary Rowan is not very concerned about the family or the children of a family member that is an Incapacitated Individual. Sitting in court so many times and watching her talk to the family members are disheartening…. never really listening to the members and their loved ones.” (5/16/11).

Commenters on another site who rated her 1 out of 5 (top) said, “After looking for help and guidance, I turned to Mary Rowan for assistance. Not only was she very unprofessional and difficult to work with, she has very poor listening skills. After three attempts by phone with each call opening and ending with Mary either yelling, insulting or being disrespectful, I had to end a potential working relationship with her.” (12/20/13)

A second commenter said, “Ms. Rowan serves as a court appointed guardian for many patients in hospitals throughout the Metro area… she ducks phone calls does not seem to care anything about her clients nor her duties as a guardian and is abrasive and difficult to deal with all in all a real gem!”

The only positive rating of Rowan was a 4.4 out of 5 on a “peer review” website, limited to evaluations by other attorneys.

Related articles and documents:

(Thanks to David Scheid for alerting VOD to various of these articles.)

Mother and child rebellion Lennette Williams Metro Times, by Curt Guyette

Weaver opinion on George

Housey opinion re George et al

Judge Kathryn George Under Investigation

Katheryn George shakeup ProbateCourt

Kathryn George _ The Michigan Lawyer

My Mother KG case

Probate Judge letter on Kathryn George

Mass protest in Puerto Rico during 2009 general strike.

BY Yana Kunichoff

June 10, 2014

Union workers in Puerto Rico are resisting a crippling budget proposal.

(VOD editor: Note similarities to the current takeover of Detroit. They are no accident. Detroit EM Kevyn Orr’s law firm Jones Day is intricately linked with this latest attack on the Puerto Rican people, as described in Bloomberg article at end of story.)

Puerto Rico — Public union workers from a handful of unions across Puerto Rico have spent the last week blocking ports, shutting down thoroughfares and slowing public transit. But that may be just the beginning: In the coming week, workers are expected to vote on whether to hold a general strike across the country.

May Day protesters take the streets to stop Emergency Management of Detroit May 1, 2014.

The unions are standing against the austerity budget proposed this spring by members of the U.S. commonwealth’s General Assembly to deal with the country’s recent bond downgrade and looming payment of its debts to bondholders. The Fiscal Sustainability Act of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as the budget is called, would allow the government to bring in “emergency powers” to deal with the crisis.

Under this authority, it could renegotiate all public employees’ contracts, liquidate unused sick days, and freeze salaries—thereby gutting workers’ collective bargaining powers. Privatizing the commonwealth’s electrical company, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, has also been placed on the table as an option for stanching the crisis; the emergency measures would also include closing 100 public schools.

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority facility.

The budget must be passed on June 30 to coincide with the beginning of the 2015 fiscal year on July 1. And as that deadline nears, unions across the island have been escalating their protests. On June 5, the union of transportation employees prevented ferries around the country from functioning. That same day, workers from the bus and port authorities, as well as the state insurance funds, blocked the entrance to the central government building in San Juan. Amid the disruptions, the labor secretary said at a council meeting he would not speculate as to whether the actions already constituted a general strike, or were just a series of protests.

Nora Vargas-Acosta, a labor lawyer in Puerto Rico who represents several of the unions who would be affected by the bill, including healthcare workers and correctional facility workers, says that although the fiscal crisis is certainly real, its effects shouldn’t be wholly shouldered by workers. “The way the government wants to address the economic crisis is falling on the right of workers,” she says. “From my perspective, it is right that the unions feel that it should not be this way. There are some costs but the government does not want them to bear equally on all.”

Atty. Nora Vargas Acosta represents some of the unions.

 In February, several credit rating services, including Moody’s Investor Service and S&P, brought Puerto Rico’s bond rate down to “junk” status. But the alarm bells set off by the rating are only the latest signs of trouble for the island, considering the strong hold financial markets from the United States have on Puerto Rico. The country is in its eighth year of recession, with more than $70 billion in public debtheld largely by U.S.-based investors.

Blame for much of this crisis has been laid at the doorstep of the United States, which has held Puerto Rico as a territory for 115 years. In 2006, the U.S. Congress did away with the island’s main economic development strategy—federal tax credits for companies who made profits in Puerto Rico—which caused many Puerto Rico-based companies to flee to other tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands. In recent years, the island has again begun wooing the super-rich from the United States, with a handful of millionaires already taking up its offer of low taxes and warm weather.

Detroit May Day protesters invaded the Westin Book Cadillac, where Detroit EM Kevyn Orr currently resides.

On the ground, the nation of 3.7 million people has a 15.4 percent unemployment rate; government pensions are underfunded by $37 billion. These problems have prompted an exodus of people to the United States, with more than 35,000 people leaving between April 2010 and July 2011 alone, several years into Puerto Rico’s recession. The economy is dominated by manufacturing, finance and public sector jobs, but the government is the island’s largest employer—meaning that its workers are the most liable to suffer from public cutbacks. Puerto Rico’s constitution goes so far as to legally stipulate bonds will be paid off even before government paychecks.

2009 general strike by Puerto Rican workers targeted privatization among other issues.

And the Fiscal Sustainability law isn’t the first time the government has put its employees on the line to deal with its financial problems. In October 2009, then-Gov. Luis Fortuño’s firing of 17,000 workers, ostensibly to avoid an immediate government shutdown caused by the fiscal crisis, had already set off protests from public workers as well as political parties and community organizations, all of which culminated in a general strike. Despite the unrest, Public Law 7, passed in March 2010, gave Fortuño’s conservative administration the leeway to suspend union contracts and dismiss even more public sector workers without due process rights laid out in their contracts.

Detroit workers demanded cancellation of the city’s debt to the banks during this May 9, 2012 protest.

Despite the similarities of Law 7 to the fiscal sustainability law, current governor Alejandro García Padilla has taken steps to publicly separate the two measures. Padilla, whose party criticized Law 7 when it was initially introduced and has said its effects have been negative, defended his party’s fiscal sustainability law by saying it won’t create layoffs in the public workforce. Still, unions regard the budget as yet another way to leach civil employees of their rights.

Vargas-Acosta doesn’t deny that there are troubles within the labor organizations themselves, such as corruption and unions who work closely with the administration. But, she says, unions have helped provide public workers with a good standard of living, one she would like to see shared by all workers in the country.

“The things that you are hearing from the government is ‘look how many rights they have, look how well they are doing,’” she says, referring to the government’s implication that the public sector is the place to trim the fat. “This means unions are in fact doing their jobs and doing it well.”

As rumors of a nationwide public workers’ strike swirl, Vargas-Acosta says unions have put forward their own suggestions for how to fix the crisis. Among the proposals are suggestions that state agencies should minimize their number of outside contractors, which they heavily rely on or, as the head of the electrical workers’ union has suggested, place a moratorium on debt payments. With debt payments expected to total $18.35 billion through 2018, according to estimates from Moody’s Investors Service, and the aforementioned constitutional clause promising the payment of debt services, its unclear how likely these plans are to gain traction.

“The unions have for years been telling the government, let’s address this, and offering an alternative plan,” she said. “But workers’ attempts to have fruitful dialogue with the administration are not having any results.

PUERTO RICO TO GET SPOTLIGHT FROM JONES DAY AT MEETING

By Michelle Kaske and Steven Church

Jan 16, 2014 11:58 AM ET

Jones Day, the law firm shepherdingDetroit through bankruptcy, is extending its restructuring skills to Puerto Rico with a seminar on the $70 billion market for commonwealth debt.

The firm plans to brief investors today in New York on Puerto Rico’s fiscal outlook and the “possible paths going forward,” according to an invitation to the event. The seminar follows similar meetings last year with investors to assess the benefits and risks of Puerto Rico securities.

The three major rating companies grade Puerto Rico one step above junk, with a negative outlook. Moody’s Investors Service Dec. 11 warned that it may cut the island to speculative grade within 90 days. Puerto Rico officials plan to sell bonds this month or in February.

Bruce Bennett of Jones Day, William Buckfire of Buckfire/Stifel and Detroit EM Kevyn Orr at creditors’ meeting June 14, 2013.

“There are a number of clients and friends of the firm that are interested in the topic,” Bruce Bennett, a Jones Day attorney who is helping lead Detroit’s $18 billion bankruptcy, said in an interview. The briefing “is forward-looking and not in response to any near-term developments,” he said.

Puerto Rico’s fiscal health affects the $3.7 trillion municipal market because 70 percent of U.S. local-debt mutual funds held commonwealth securities as of Jan. 9, according to Morningstar Inc. The funds own about $14 billion of the debt sold by the U.S. territory and its agencies, according to Morningstar. The securities are tax-exempt nationwide.

Below Grade

Puerto Rico debt trades below its investment-grade ratings.

Unemployed Puerto Rican workers check job board.

Tax-free general obligations maturing in July 2041 traded today with an average yield of 8.59 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That exceeds the 6.7 percent yield on a Standard& Poor’s index of high-yield munis with an average maturity of 20 years.

While the commonwealth isn’t eligible to file for bankruptcy, a default could surpass Detroit’s record bid for Chapter 9 protection in July.

Timothy Coleman of Blackstone private equity group.

Along with Bennett, Jones Day partner Beth Heifetz and Timothy Coleman, head of Blackstone Group LP’s restructuring and reorganization group, are scheduled to speak at the meeting, according to the invitation.

Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who took office a year ago, has said the island of 3.6 million people will repay its obligations on time and in full. Puerto Rico’s 14.7 percent jobless rate in November was higher than in any U.S. state.

Payment Promise

“We made significant progress in implementing our fiscal and economic development plans in 2013, and are determined to continue that progress in 2014,” Jose Pagan, interim president of the Government Development Bank, and Treasury Secretary Melba Acosta said in a statement regarding reports of today’s meeting.“Puerto Rico will take every step necessary to continue honoring its obligations.”

Earlier strike by Puerto Rican students.

Commonwealth officials aren’t involved in the Jones Day meeting and didn’t call for it, according to the statement.

In November, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, a New York-based law firm that advises on distressed munis, held a conference on Puerto Rico, said a person who attended.

In October, bankers at Citigroup (C) Inc. and Morgan Stanley (MS) made private presentations to investors in New York, according to people who attended. Lazard Capital Markets LLC said it hosted a similar meeting that month.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michelle Kaske in New York at mkaske@bloomberg.net; Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware at schurch3@bloomberg.net

Cornell Squires with Tamikia McGruder and her baby Atjamino, kidnapped by CPS. Mother was afforded a one-hour visit with her baby at the Children’s Center May 23, 2014.

Police report filed on foster mother’s reckless driving after visit at Children’s Center May 23 — VOD ID’S HER AS ANJELA ANTONAZZO FREEMAN

Tamikia McGruder informed caseworker on earlier visit of evident abuse and neglect of baby by foster family; nothing done

Mother told by caseworker baby would be removed from foster household; nothing in writing, no removal yet

By Diane Bukowski

June 10, 2014

A mother’s pride and joy: Tamikia and Atjamino.

DETROIT — Tamikia McGruder visited her baby Atjamino at the Children’s Center for one hour May 23, then again was forced to relinquish the infant to foster mother Anjela Antonazzo Freeman of the metro Detroit area, and apparently also of Florida.

Freeman promptly endangered the baby’s life, driving recklessly at high speeds away from the Center in her brand new black van, then passing three vehicles waiting at a red light on Woodward. She raced around all three to the left, in the oncoming lane of traffic, and turned right in front of them onto Woodward while the light was still red. She left no time even to see if there was oncoming traffic on Woodward.

This reporter, who was going in the same direction in her car, observed the incident first-hand, and promptly filed a police report of “child endangerment” at Woodward and W. Grand Blvd.

A caseworker from the Hamilton Avenue office of the state’s Child Protective Services division took Atjamino from her grandmother Doras Davis two months after a judge ordered her placement there. Davis said the worker produced no new court order.

Children’s Center of Wayne County at 79 W. Alexandrine in Detroit.

Since the May 23 visit, McGruder said, her caseworker at the Children’s Center, Megan Haddad, has told her Atjamino will be taken from the foster home and placed with her paternal aunt instead. She has been given nothing in writing, including any court order,  and still wants Atjamino back home with her and the baby’s father, Arthur Simmons, Jr.

“I raised holy hell with them the other day,” McGruder said. “I told them they had no court order to take my baby from her grandmother and give her to that couple. On an earlier visit, I reported that my baby had a severe rash in her vaginal area and chest, and it looked to me like her anus was wider,” McGruder told VOD. “I also told them the foster mother had brought dirty baby bottles with her and about other uncleanliness.”

The cell-phone photo McGruder took of her baby’s genital area is literally horrifying, showing a very broad reddened patch on one side of the vagina and a darker patch on the other side, with what appear to be welts and bruises as well, and a reddened vaginal opening. The baby’s anus did indeed appear to be distended. VOD has a copy of the photo but is not publishing it due to its sensitive nature. It will be turned over to McGruder’s attorney for admission at the next court hearing.

When this reporter showed Haddad the photo from her camera, Haddad refused even to look at it or to address the issue.  McGruder said the Children’s Center refused to act on the matter when she discovered her baby’s condition and asked that Atjamino be taken to Children’s Hospital for an examination.

McGruder said her inspection of the infant on the May 23 visit showed no abnormalities, to her relief. A supervisor at the Children’s Center allowed this reporter and Cornell Squires of We the People for the People to attend the visit that day.

Tamikia shows Mother’s Day card, sent by her oldest daughter with all six children’s names included.

With Squires’ assistance, McGruder is pursuing legal recourse to have the baby returned, as her court-appointed attorney and the baby’s father’s attorney begged Referee Mona Youssef to do during a recent hearing, as a minimum request. Youssef refused to do so, instead postponing any further movement on the case until a hearing July 24, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Juvenile Hall on E. Forest and the 1-75 service drive.

Youssef wanted both parents to undergo psychiatric examinations, although there had been no previous orders for them to do so.

“I went for two evaluations since then,” McGruder said. “They both said there was nothing wrong with me. They wondered why I was even there, since no doctor had referred me.”

Parents Tamikia McGruder and Arthur Simmons, Jr.

Both the baby’s father, Arthur Simmons, Jr,  and McGruder report they are in constant turmoil worrying about Atjamino and their five other children. All of them were placed in separate foster homes or agencies beginning May 30, 2013, pursuant to a court order rubber-stamped with a judge’s signature and without a hearing in front of that judge.

Since that time, their 12-year-old son, taking the notorious drug Risperdal, tried to hang himself with a phone cord, according to medical records. He also reported sexual abuse in the home of his single foster father. CPS did nothing about that incident and ignored it in their family treatment plans, despite the fact that the mother filed a police report about the sexual abuse.

Another son also visited Children’s Hospital with reports that he was constantly fighting in school. According to Ms. McGruder, that son, since then, has ben disciplined by Wolverine Center staff for a minor incident, by being forbidden to see his family for one month.

“He has been hurting himself, banging his head against the wall because he can’t see us,” McGruder said.

Two of the couple’s sons during visit at Hamilton DHS office.

She also reported that CPS workers Samantha Burks and Sherrie Howard, as well as Children’s Center worker Haddad, have prevented the children’s  paternal grandmother and paternal aunt from participating in weekly family visits. The workers claim only the father and mother are allowed during the visits.

All of the couple’s children except the baby are being given psychotropic drugs with side effects including suicide attempts, depression, aggression, and gynecomastia while in foster care. To add to that horror, a recent “Family Treatment Plan” drawn up by CPS indicates that the baby will also be evaluated for mental health issues.

McGruder said she emailed Pres. Barack Obama at the White House and received the following response, dated May 20, 2014 from the Department Of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth and Families Division.

Dear Ms. McGruder:

This is a response to your email to Pres. Barack Obama regarding your safety concerns for your children while they are in the custody of the child welfare system and your desire to regain custody of your children. Your correspondence was forwarded to the Children’s Bureau located within the administration for Children and Families. The Children’s Bureau is the federal agency responsible for helping states to improve the safety and well-being of the nation’s children and youth. I appreciate that this must be a very difficult situation for you and your family.

The circumstance you described in your correspondence relates to a matter over which the state has legal jurisdiction, through their family courts and agencies. Although the federal government does not have equal authority to intervene in child welfare and individual family law matters such as custody and visitation arrangements, we can provide the following information that may be of assistance. Because your children are currently in state care you may find it helpful to discuss this case with Nancy Rostoni, the State of Michigan’s foster care program manager at Nancy Rostoni, Michigan DHS Bureau of Child Welfare, Children’s Service Administration. Her email is rostonin@michigan.gov.”

Pres. Barack Obama’s daughters lead happy lives; why shouldn’t the rest of the country’s children do the same?

McGruder said she has spoken with an individual in Rostoni’s office, who said she was “appalled” at her report of her son’s suicide attempt and the other issues, and would have someone get back with her by June 13, 2014.

Meanwhile, she said, she wants Referee Youssef and the chief judge of the court to have an emergency hearing on her children’s condition and their need to be returned to the arms of their mother and father before they experience any more harm in state custody.

VOD ID’S FOSTER “MOTHER”WHO ENDANGERED ATJAMINO

Anjela Antanazzo Freeman of Michigan and Florida has “No comment”

By Diane Bukowski

June 10, 2014

Anjela Antanazzo Freeman

DETROIT – Anjela Antanazzo Freeman is the full name of the woman who took Atjamino McGruder, now six months old, from the hands of CPS worker Willie Campbell on Feb. 25, 2014, after he seized the baby from her grandmother Doras Davis. He did not have a court order to remove the child from Davis’ custody, but there does exist a court order placing the infant in Davis’ custody.

VOD located Freeman’s photo online. Tamikia McGruder verified her identity on viewing the photo. VOD also called a phone number listed for her on-line, saying a reporter was calling. VOD asked her if she is the foster mother of Atjamino McGruder. Instead of answering “No,” she said “No comment.”

On-line sources indicate she was born in June, 1975.

UDM School of Law downtown Detroit campus.

On the website “Linked-In,” where her photo was discovered, Freeman says she has a Juris Doctor, meaning she is a lawyer, and claims to have a law practice. She is not however listed on the Michigan Bar Association’s website as a member.

She claims to have graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2012, and says she previously attained a “Bachelor of Music” from the University of Miami in 1997. Prior to that, she attended Kimball High School, location not noted.

She also says she was a “Broker/Associate” with the ReMax Property Centre from 2002 until 2006. She is not, however, currently listed on the Michigan website as a licensed real estate broker or salesperson. Another on-line source says she worked at Volusia, Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens, and St. John’s Episcopal Church as well.

Online sources indicate numerous addresses for her including Ormond Beach, FL, Daytona Beach, FL, Madison Heights, MI, and Royal Oak, MI.

VOD is further researching her background and any connections to CPS personnel.

Related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/06/family-says-cps-kidnapped-baby-from-grandma-in-violation-of-court-order/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/04/14/mcgrudersimmons-family-wins-cps-court-adjournment-until-mon-april-28-files-sex-crimes-report-with-police/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/26/12-year-old-child-hangs-himself-after-rubber-stamped-cps-seizure-from-family-prescription-of-drug-risperdal/

Protesters in LA called for student debt cancellation, explaining that Wall Street banks got trillions from taxpayers and should provide free education in turn.

The One-Two Punch of Income-Based Repayment and Student Loan Refinancing 

By Mark Huelsman Senior Policy Analyst, Demos 

June 9, 2014

(VOD editor’s note: Pres. Barack Obama could instead have signed an Executive Order cancelling all student debt, as Occupy Wall Street, Moratorium NOW!, the Green Party, and other groups across the country have been demanding for years, along with FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL.)

Pres. Barack Obama signs student debt re-financing order.

Big news! President Obama announced an Executive Order this afternoon that would extend the protections of Income-Based Repayment to an estimated five million more student borrowers.

At a time when one in seven student loans default within the first three years of a student leaving school, and when graduates are taking on larger and larger amounts of debt, it makes sense to use everything in the toolbox to make sure that students aren’t financially ruined before they have a chance to get a start on life. But bigger structural changes are needed to end the radical shift to a debt-for-diploma system.

Rally to cancel student debt was held at Wayne State University in 2011 during the Occupy Wall Street heydays.

Our research at Demos has shown that states are spending less and less money per student in higher education, even as we are telling students that a college degree is more important than ever

This Executive Order also recognizes that student debt is something that hits households well beyond college age. Around a third of student debt is held by those over 40, and delinquency rates generally rise by age. My colleague Robert Hiltonsmith showed in At What Cost that college educated households with debt will lose over $200,000 in lifetime wealth compared to those without debt.

This is where refinancing comes in. Allowing borrowers to refinance student loans is one of the only ways to reduce the total amount of debt a borrower must repay. Senate Democrats have coalesced around a plan—supported by the president—to allow for a one-time refinancing for borrowers with interest rates above those currently set by Congress.

Students demand free education. Other countries have it–why not the U.S.?

There’s only so much the president can do on his own. Only Congress can give students the ability to refinance loans, allocate more funds to need-based aid, or structurally change our debt-for-diploma system.

The president doesn’t have a magic wand at his disposal, but making sure that more borrowers are covered under existing protections and repayment plans is an essential place to start.

CAUTION! BANKS STILL GET MORE WITH HIGHER INTEREST RATES

(From longer article by this author at http://www.demos.org/blog/6/9/14/one-two-punch-income-based-repayment-and-student-loan-refinancing#_ftn1 )

Marchers protest banks’ role in destruction of Detroit.

“One of the only problems with IBR, however, is that because it lowers monthly payments, it can increase the total amount a borrower pays over the life of the loan, since interest still accrues. In fact, almost every protection or non-standard repayment plan that the Federal Government offers on student loans ends up increasing the total amount a borrower must pay to offload the debt,[1] in exchange for more manageable monthly payments. For some, this trade-off is a no-brainer—particularly if the alternative is defaulting on a loan. For others, it requires careful consideration.

This is where refinancing comes in. I’ve written before about how allowing borrowers to refinance student loans is one of the only ways to reduce the total amount of debt a borrower must repay. Senate Democrats have coalesced around a plan—supported by the president—to allow for a one-time refinancing for borrowers with interest rates above those currently set by Congress. For those with undergraduate debt, this—combined with expanded income-based repayment—could actually make a dent in their short- and long-term loan burden.”