Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS
May 11, 2010
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Appeal in Fong Lee Case
Wednesday, May 12
Press Conference at 8:00 a.m.
Hearing at 9:00 a.m.
Federal Courthouse
316 N Robert Street, St. Paul
Join us for a rally and press conference starting at 8:00 a.m. at the courthouse. This case has great significance to the community, especially in light of today's rehiring of the murderer cop Jason Anderson (see below). An all white outstate jury ruled in May 2009 that Andersen was justified in shooting the unarmed Fong Lee in the back as he fled, after Andersen ran him down with his squad car and knocked him off his bicycle. Join this family in their struggle to gain some measure of justice in this truly horrifying incident.
Courtwatch for Paul Hansen
Wednesday, May 12 at 1:30 p.m.
"Public Safety" Building (new jail)
401 4th St, Minneapolis
Some of you joined us a couple of years ago when we protested the Newport City Council over ongoing harassment by the local police of CUAPB board member Paul Hansen. Paul continues to experience harassment from police. In this latest incident, he was changing the locks on a rental property he owns when cops accused him of having a knife. When they searched him and none was found, he was charged with felony terroristic threats. They handcuffed him so tight that his wrists bled before handing him a ticket. This is just the latest in a long string of bogus charges. We need to let the cops know that we have Paul's back.
Courtwatch for RNC 8
Thursday, May 13
Friday, May 14
9:00 a.m. each day
Ramsey County Courthouse
15 W Kellogg, St. Paul
Carpools leave each morning at 8:00 a.m. from Walker Church, 3104 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
This is the second week of pretrial hearings in the RNC 8 case. Last week's hearings were on whether there is even a basis for the charges against the 8 and from the pathetic testimony of the cops, the bogus nature of this prosecution is becoming more apparent. For great coverage of last week's hearings, see reports on Twin Cities Indymedia. Chris Dugger, who spied on the RNC Welcoming Committee in exchange for a job as a Ramsey County Sheriff's Deputy, will testify next. This should be really exciting.
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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: NEW INITIATIVE TO HOLD COPS ACCOUNTABLE
During last weekend's Mayday festival, CUAPB launched a new initiative to amend the Minneapolis city charter so that police officers will have to purchase individual professional liability policies to cover police brutality and misconduct. This initiative is long overdue as misconduct by the cops costs taxpayers millions each year--money that could have been used for housing homeless people, keeping our libraries open or any number of other important items. Not only will this relieve the burden from taxpayers but it is an ingenious way to add an element of risk management to local policing--if a police officer gets too many complaints/lawsuits, he or she will be dropped by the insurance company and would no longer be able to be a cop in Minneapolis.
For this initiative to be successful, we have to get it on the ballot and that means we need to collect the signatures of 15,000 registered Minneapolis voters by July 1. That's where you come in. We need lots of canvassers to go door to door in selected neighborhoods in Minneapolis to explain the charter amendment and ask people to sign to put it on the ballot. From our work last weekend, we found that many people are eager to sign on once we explain the amendment. You'll work on a team with others and will be trained and have a script to follow.
If you can be part of this historic effort, please come to a training session on Saturday, May 15 at 4:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis or call our hotline at 612-874-7867 to let us know you can help.
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ONE STEP FORWARD: COURT REQUIRES DOLAN TO FOLLOW THE LAW
In response to our writ petition filed back on February 12, Judge Susan Burke issued an order requiring Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan to “comply with Minneapolis Ordinance § 172.130.” Judge Burke further ordered that Chief Dolan “shall show cause before this court why he has not done so on June 4, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 757 of the Hennepin County Government Center.” Folks, you are going to want to mark that date on your calendar as that hearing should be one great show!
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21). This report also cites a new excuse by the chief for not disciplining complaintsthat of the investigation taking “too long.” For a discussion of this issue, see p. 29 of the report. The 2009 Annual Report can be found at < http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/2009-Annual-Report043010.pdf > and the CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan can be found at < http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf >.
In a companion ruling, Judge Burke set a trial schedule in the matter of whether CRA Board Chair Don Bellfield adequately responded to a requirement in the CRA ordinance that he submit notice to Minneapolis City Council’s Executive Committee of Chief Dolan’s failure to follow the discipline section of the CRA ordinance and that this failure could subject Chief Dolan to discipline. With this ruling, we are two for two against the city's shenanigans for shielding Dolan from the law.
Judge: MPD chief must explain discipline decisions
Created: 05/10/2010 10:51 PM KSTP.com By: Becky Nahm
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1553383.shtml?cat=1
[]
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan will be required to tell a Hennepin County judge why he did not discipline police officers found to be at fault by a citizen review board.
A judge ordered Dolan to appear in court in June.
The ruling is a victory for the group Communities United Against Police Brutality.
In February, the group filed a lawsuit, saying Dolan failed to punish officers even after the Civilian Police Review Authority sustained complaints against them.
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TWO STEPS BACK: ON EVE OF FONG LEE APPEAL, MURDERING COP PUT BACK ON FORCE
Hold your stomachs, folks--the sympathetic tone of this article will really make you ill. Note that no one from the community was interviewed for a response. This is an old pattern--pretty much every cop fired after an incident of excessive or deadly force who appeals to the arbitrator gets rehired. Folks will remember that Mike Sauro was reinstated after costing the city $3 million. All the more reason to be at the Fong Lee hearing tomorrow.
Fired Minneapolis police officer in Fong Lee case is ordered rehired
By David Hanners
Updated: 05/11/2010 07:33:53 PM CDT
http://www.twincities.com/ci_15064684?nclick_check=1
An arbitrator has ruled that Minneapolis Chief of Police Tim Dolan was wrong to fire Jason Andersen, the officer involved in the 2006 shooting of Fong Lee, and has ordered the cop reinstated with back pay.
Dolan fired Andersen for allegedly violating the department's code of ethics; the firing came after a prosecutor dropped a misdemeanor domestic assault charge that had been filed against Andersen.
"It feels good to be vindicated," the officer said in a statement released by his father, Steven Andersen. "I'm anxious to get back to work and serve the citizens of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department administration with pride."
The 33-year-old officer was fired four months after a jury in a federal wrongful-death trial found that he did not use excessive force in the July 2006 shooting of Fong Lee. Andersen shot the 19-year-old eight times after he said the Hmong man began to raise a pistol towards the officer.
Dolan had long defended Andersen's actions, even returning him to duty before the department's own investigation into the shooting was complete. But after the verdict, some of Andersen's colleagues expressed concern that even though he'd been cleared of wrongdoing, the publicity created by the trial and the rift the shooting had left in the Hmong community had left him a marked man.
When the chief fired Andersen, the Minneapolis Police Federation filed a grievance, and today the union's vice president said the union was pleased with the arbitrator's ruling.
"We're obviously very happy," said Lt. Bob Kroll. "Jason's looking forward to getting back to work. He's one of these guys who was born to be a cop."
Sgt. Jesse Garcia III, a spokesman for the police department, said he hadn't heard of the ruling and couldn't comment.
He said Dolan was not available for comment.
Fred Bruno, the attorney who represented Andersen in the domestic assault case, said he was glad the arbitrator ruled in the officer's favor.
"I always thought that thing stunk from the beginning, so I'm happy to hear that," he said. "He's a single dad with kids and a mortgage, so he deserves it."
Andersen had been placed on paid administrative leave after he was arrested June 14 following an incident at his Big Lake home. His ex-wife had called a Big Lake policeman and complained that Andersen had struck his girlfriend.
Both Andersen and his girlfriend were charged with misdemeanor domestic assault. Sherburne County prosecutors soon dismissed the charge against the woman, and on Sept. 2, the charge against Andersen was dropped as well.
Prosecutors said there wasn't enough admissible evidence that Andersen had broken the law.
Bruno then asked the department to reinstate the officer, a second-generation cop who had joined the Minneapolis police department in August 2005. But the domestic assault cause had sparked an internal affairs investigation; a disciplinary panel recommended to Dolan that the officer be fired, and the chief agreed.
Andersen was told that he had violated the department's single-paragraph Code of Ethics, which reads:
"All sworn and civilian members of the department shall conduct themselves in a professional and ethical manner at all times and not engage in any on- or off-duty conduct that would tarnish or offend the ethical standards of the department. Employees shall abide by the City's Ethics in Government Policy, Chapter 15."
"I think from the get-go, the city's case was baseless," said Kroll. "We think that the arbitrator came to the right conclusion. It was a right and just decision."
Andersen's father, Steven Andersen, said that his son is "a public servant through and through" and that he had learned from the experience.
"He's grown as a person," said the elder Andersen, a retired Beltrami county sheriff's deputy. "He's grown in his faith, I think he's matured a lot over this. There's been some real growth in his life. And he's not bitter. When he called me (to tell him of the ruling) there was absolutely not a breath of bitterness from him. He was just elated that he can go back and continue to serve the citizens of the community. That's what he wants to do."
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Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Judge orders MPD chief Dolan to follow the law
You'd think that'd be simple for an "officer of the law."
Increasingly, as an activist and writer who still believes in the need for law and public safety, the police apparatus in place today is not up to the task, and in my opinion, acts as a national criminal class protected by the badge."
from the report:
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21).
Increasingly, as an activist and writer who still believes in the need for law and public safety, the police apparatus in place today is not up to the task, and in my opinion, acts as a national criminal class protected by the badge."
from the report:
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21).
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
GURU, the legend passes on to the other side
I am absolutely crushed by this news. Guru was a pioneer and is truly deserving of the LEGEND title.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Monday, April 05, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Communities United Against Police Brutality newsletter
Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS
February 22, 2010
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Tons of great events coming up--a busy February and March.
FREE MUMIA!
Legal Update on the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Saturday, 2/27, 3:00 p.m.
Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
William Mitchell Law School Professor Peter Erlinder will present an update on the latest legal rulings in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner on death row in Pennsylvania. Mumia is the ultimate police brutality survivor. For years, he was a radio broadcaster telling the stories of oppressed people and he earned the nickname "voice of the voiceless." He also earned the ire of the Philly police, who promised that he would be made to pay for exposing their brutality and corruption. After being shot and severely beaten by police, he was then falsely charged and convicted of murder of a police officer who was killed in the same incident. Despite another man confessing to the shooting, Mumia has remained on death row for over 25 years. His case has taken many twists and turns as it moves through the legal system but one recurring theme has been that the system seems to have a separate set of rules just for Mumia every time his case goes to court. A recent decision by the US Supreme Court follows this trend as it bucked precedent to deny Mumia a new trial. Come learn about the current status of the case and what you can do to FREE MUMIA!
*****************************************************************
Calendar of Events with Dhoruba Bin-Wahad
In November 2009 Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, a former U.S. political prisoner, leader the Black Panther Party, and member of the Black Liberation Army, was detained and deported from the West Bank of occupied Palestine by Israeli authorities. He had been invited to attend a conference on political detention by the Palestinian Authority. Dhoruba spent 19 years of a life sentence in jail for a crime he did not commit. He was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, was arrested in 1971 and had his conviction overturned in 1990. He will discuss historic and current struggles against social injustice and state violence in the U.S. and in Palestine, with a specific focus on political prisoners and institutions that repress social movement mobilization within communities fighting oppression. During international Israel Anti-Apartheid week (March 1-7), join a wide array of Twin Cities organizations to hear this powerful speaker, who challenges conventional wisdom and inspires people to embrace social change. A flyer listing all events is at http://midwestgreenscare.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/dbw-flyer-all-events2.pdf
Community Dinner with Dhoruba Bin Wahad
Sunday, 2/28, 7 p.m.
Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
$5 suggested donation, no one turned away due to lack of funds
CUAPB and the RNC 8 Defense Committee are hosting this community dinner and doing the cooking. Vegan, vegetarian and meat options will be available. Come out for some great food and be nourished in body and spirit.
Lecture and Q&A
Monday, 3/1, 7 p.m.
University of Minnesota's Blegen Hall, Room 5
Lecture and Q&A
Tuesday, 3/2, 11:15 a.m.
Hamline University, Sundin Music Hall
1536 Hewitt Ave, St. Paul
Lecture and Refreshments
Tuesday, 3/2, 6 p.m.
Historic Pilgrim Baptist Church
732 Central Ave, St. Paul (enter on west side of building)
This event is hosted by St. Paul NAACP.
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Community Forum on Reappointment of Minneapolis Police Chief Dolan
Monday, 3/1, 6:30 p.m.
Shiloh Temple, 1201 W Broadway Ave, Minneapolis
Enter parking lot from Girard, park in fenced in lot, enter through back of building.
This will be a repeat of the red-hot event that happened on the southside last month. Panelists will present information on why Dolan should not be reappointed and will arm the community with talking points and information for the 3/3 public hearing by the city council on Dolan's reappointment. Refreshments will be served.
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Public Hearing on the Reappointment of Chief Dolan
Wednesday, 3/3, 1:30 p.m.
Minneapolis City Hall, Rm 317
Come and plan to speak out against the reappointment of Tim Dolan to Minneapolis police chief. CUAPB will distribute copies of a comprehensive report on Dolan's tenure as chief. We need to pack this meeting and make city hall see that we mean business. YOUR PRESENCE AT THIS HEARING IS VITAL--MOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH TO BE THERE! Be sure to arrive early and sign up to speak.
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CRA Board Meeting
Wednesday, 3/3, 6:30 p.m
Minneapolis City Hall, Rm 333.
350 S. Fifth Street (but enter on the 4th Street side)
After last month's wild ride and this month's legal action to force the CRA and Dolan to follow the law (see below) , the fur should be flying at this meeting. With some added surprises, perhaps one of the most exciting activist events this year. You will not want to miss this meeting!
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CRA SAGA: BOARD BOWS TO POWER STRUCTURE, IGNORES COMMUNITY
CUAPB TAKES LEGAL ACTION
These last few weeks have been quite the adventure with the Minneapolis Civilian Review Board. The CRA is a city agency outside of the police department that processes complaints on police conduct. The agency employs investigators and other staff members. A board of community members oversees the agency, holds hearings on and determines the outcome of complaints, makes policy recommendations, tracks and trends police brutality cases and does community outreach--at least that's what they are supposed to be doing. However, with a few notable exceptions, this board has been loathe to do anything of substance to hold the police department accountable. One shining exception has been Dave Bicking, city council candidate and long-time activist. Bicking consistently urges the board to push forward on important issues such as the Taser policy. He was the primary author of the recently released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan (available at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf ), a report documenting Dolan's continued refusal to discipline sustained CRA cases based on bogus excuses.
As we told you in the last newsletter, Bicking participated in a forum on whether Chief Dolan should be reappointed and he was quoted in the paper expressing his opposition. In both instances, he made it clear that he was expressing only his own opinion, not speaking for the CRA. As a result, CRA board chair Donald Bellfield wrote a scathing letter to the mayor, city council, civil rights director and others slamming Bicking. However, the board never approved the letter, which was written on CRA letterhead and framed as if it was coming from the whole board. In other words, Bellfield is actually guilty of what he falsely accused Bicking of doing--speaking for the CRA board without their permission.
During its February 3 meeting, the board could have addressed this conduct by sending a letter to the same people who received the first letter clarifying that Bellfield's letter didn't represent the board. This would have been especially important to do as Bicking is coming up for reappointment. However, they would not pass a motion to do that. Apparently, they are too afraid of pissing off the power elite in city hall so they instead threw Bicking under the proverbial bus. Read the minutes from that meeting to see just how low those board members stooped: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/CRA-02-03-2010.pdf
On top of everything else, Chief Dolan showed up for less than 10 minutes at the beginning of the meeting spouting a line about how much he respects the CRA. This, after three years of refusing to discipline their complaints, dissing them at every opportunity in the media, etc. He made vague promises about "working together." So, let me see. Now that he is up for reappointment, he is finally ready to "work together" with the same CRA he is so quick to criticize. It would have been hilarious except that most of the board members actually drank the koolaid. For months, we've been trying to get chair Bellfield to follow the part of the CRA ordinance that says the CRA chair “shall notify the executive committee [of the Minneapolis city council] of the chief’s failure to comply with the requirements of this section [172.130, Disciplinary Decisions].” Now that the CRA's report provides proof of Dolan's failure to follow the CRA ordinance, the CRA board was presented with a motion directing their chair to report that failure to the city council, as required by the ordinance. With the city council considering the reappointment of Dolan, timing is critical. Yet, this board refused to pass the motion stating they wanted to try to work things out with Dolan. Again, more proof that they would rather suck up to the power structure than assert their own power and serve the community. No wonder people in the community don't take them seriously.
Finally, the community got to speak. Usually the public speaking portion of the meeting happens before the board conducts business but acting chair weasel Justin Terrell engineered it so they would screw over Dave and the community before the community could try to stop them. Nonetheless, the packed room full of people expressed their sheer disgust with the board's failure to act. The minutes give a pretty accurate depiction of the comments, though it did leave out the part where Terrell tried to shut this editor up and I dared him to call the cops on me.
After seeing the total acquiescence of most of the CRA board to the city administration and police chief, we knew we had to do something. On February 12, we filed a petition for a Writ of Mandamus, a court order directing a public official to follow the law. The writ petition has two parts--one directs Bellfield to give notice to the city council about Dolan's violations of the law and that Dolan is subject to discipline for such failure, and the second part directs Dolan to show cause as to why he is not in violation of the law (he won't be able to, as he is in violation of the law). After the long holiday weekend, Judge Susan Burke granted the first part of our writ ordering Bellfield to submit the required notice to the city council by their 9:30 a.m. meeting the next day or show up in court. He was served the writ at his home but, amazingly, ignored it by neither filing the notice nor showing up in court. Instead, three city attorneys appeared in court (claiming they couldn't get ahold of him) and claimed the report on Dolan WAS the required notice, a ridiculous claim. After a short hearing, Judge Burke indicated she would "take the matter under advisement" and we are still waiting for a ruling. We certainly hope the judge will take note of the fact that a mere two hours after he was to have been in court, Bellfield was interviewed by Andy Mannix with City Pages--so much for being unavailable. Contempt of court doesn't seem like too strong of a sentiment.
We're also awaiting word on when we can depose Chief Dolan for the second half of the writ petition. This should happen soon.
At this point, the CRA board has done so much bowing to the power elite of this city that they really have ensured that the CRA cannot carry out its mission. This is truly sickening, given how hard the community has fought for a CRA in the first place. Perhaps the court will force the board chair to take a small action to reclaim the power of the CRA. Perhaps the court will also help to hold Chief Dolan accountable for thumbing his nose at CRA complaints. No matter what, the majority of the members on the CRA board have outed themselves as sycophants for the current administration. They should step down so they can be replaced by people who have the backbones to do the job.
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
EMAIL NEWS
February 22, 2010
**********************************************
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tons of great events coming up--a busy February and March.
FREE MUMIA!
Legal Update on the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Saturday, 2/27, 3:00 p.m.
Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
William Mitchell Law School Professor Peter Erlinder will present an update on the latest legal rulings in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner on death row in Pennsylvania. Mumia is the ultimate police brutality survivor. For years, he was a radio broadcaster telling the stories of oppressed people and he earned the nickname "voice of the voiceless." He also earned the ire of the Philly police, who promised that he would be made to pay for exposing their brutality and corruption. After being shot and severely beaten by police, he was then falsely charged and convicted of murder of a police officer who was killed in the same incident. Despite another man confessing to the shooting, Mumia has remained on death row for over 25 years. His case has taken many twists and turns as it moves through the legal system but one recurring theme has been that the system seems to have a separate set of rules just for Mumia every time his case goes to court. A recent decision by the US Supreme Court follows this trend as it bucked precedent to deny Mumia a new trial. Come learn about the current status of the case and what you can do to FREE MUMIA!
*****************************************************************
Calendar of Events with Dhoruba Bin-Wahad
In November 2009 Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, a former U.S. political prisoner, leader the Black Panther Party, and member of the Black Liberation Army, was detained and deported from the West Bank of occupied Palestine by Israeli authorities. He had been invited to attend a conference on political detention by the Palestinian Authority. Dhoruba spent 19 years of a life sentence in jail for a crime he did not commit. He was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, was arrested in 1971 and had his conviction overturned in 1990. He will discuss historic and current struggles against social injustice and state violence in the U.S. and in Palestine, with a specific focus on political prisoners and institutions that repress social movement mobilization within communities fighting oppression. During international Israel Anti-Apartheid week (March 1-7), join a wide array of Twin Cities organizations to hear this powerful speaker, who challenges conventional wisdom and inspires people to embrace social change. A flyer listing all events is at http://midwestgreenscare.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/dbw-flyer-all-events2.pdf
Community Dinner with Dhoruba Bin Wahad
Sunday, 2/28, 7 p.m.
Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
$5 suggested donation, no one turned away due to lack of funds
CUAPB and the RNC 8 Defense Committee are hosting this community dinner and doing the cooking. Vegan, vegetarian and meat options will be available. Come out for some great food and be nourished in body and spirit.
Lecture and Q&A
Monday, 3/1, 7 p.m.
University of Minnesota's Blegen Hall, Room 5
Lecture and Q&A
Tuesday, 3/2, 11:15 a.m.
Hamline University, Sundin Music Hall
1536 Hewitt Ave, St. Paul
Lecture and Refreshments
Tuesday, 3/2, 6 p.m.
Historic Pilgrim Baptist Church
732 Central Ave, St. Paul (enter on west side of building)
This event is hosted by St. Paul NAACP.
*****************************************************************
Community Forum on Reappointment of Minneapolis Police Chief Dolan
Monday, 3/1, 6:30 p.m.
Shiloh Temple, 1201 W Broadway Ave, Minneapolis
Enter parking lot from Girard, park in fenced in lot, enter through back of building.
This will be a repeat of the red-hot event that happened on the southside last month. Panelists will present information on why Dolan should not be reappointed and will arm the community with talking points and information for the 3/3 public hearing by the city council on Dolan's reappointment. Refreshments will be served.
*****************************************************************
Public Hearing on the Reappointment of Chief Dolan
Wednesday, 3/3, 1:30 p.m.
Minneapolis City Hall, Rm 317
Come and plan to speak out against the reappointment of Tim Dolan to Minneapolis police chief. CUAPB will distribute copies of a comprehensive report on Dolan's tenure as chief. We need to pack this meeting and make city hall see that we mean business. YOUR PRESENCE AT THIS HEARING IS VITAL--MOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH TO BE THERE! Be sure to arrive early and sign up to speak.
*****************************************************************
CRA Board Meeting
Wednesday, 3/3, 6:30 p.m
Minneapolis City Hall, Rm 333.
350 S. Fifth Street (but enter on the 4th Street side)
After last month's wild ride and this month's legal action to force the CRA and Dolan to follow the law (see below) , the fur should be flying at this meeting. With some added surprises, perhaps one of the most exciting activist events this year. You will not want to miss this meeting!
___________________________________________________________
CRA SAGA: BOARD BOWS TO POWER STRUCTURE, IGNORES COMMUNITY
CUAPB TAKES LEGAL ACTION
These last few weeks have been quite the adventure with the Minneapolis Civilian Review Board. The CRA is a city agency outside of the police department that processes complaints on police conduct. The agency employs investigators and other staff members. A board of community members oversees the agency, holds hearings on and determines the outcome of complaints, makes policy recommendations, tracks and trends police brutality cases and does community outreach--at least that's what they are supposed to be doing. However, with a few notable exceptions, this board has been loathe to do anything of substance to hold the police department accountable. One shining exception has been Dave Bicking, city council candidate and long-time activist. Bicking consistently urges the board to push forward on important issues such as the Taser policy. He was the primary author of the recently released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan (available at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf ), a report documenting Dolan's continued refusal to discipline sustained CRA cases based on bogus excuses.
As we told you in the last newsletter, Bicking participated in a forum on whether Chief Dolan should be reappointed and he was quoted in the paper expressing his opposition. In both instances, he made it clear that he was expressing only his own opinion, not speaking for the CRA. As a result, CRA board chair Donald Bellfield wrote a scathing letter to the mayor, city council, civil rights director and others slamming Bicking. However, the board never approved the letter, which was written on CRA letterhead and framed as if it was coming from the whole board. In other words, Bellfield is actually guilty of what he falsely accused Bicking of doing--speaking for the CRA board without their permission.
During its February 3 meeting, the board could have addressed this conduct by sending a letter to the same people who received the first letter clarifying that Bellfield's letter didn't represent the board. This would have been especially important to do as Bicking is coming up for reappointment. However, they would not pass a motion to do that. Apparently, they are too afraid of pissing off the power elite in city hall so they instead threw Bicking under the proverbial bus. Read the minutes from that meeting to see just how low those board members stooped: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/CRA-02-03-2010.pdf
On top of everything else, Chief Dolan showed up for less than 10 minutes at the beginning of the meeting spouting a line about how much he respects the CRA. This, after three years of refusing to discipline their complaints, dissing them at every opportunity in the media, etc. He made vague promises about "working together." So, let me see. Now that he is up for reappointment, he is finally ready to "work together" with the same CRA he is so quick to criticize. It would have been hilarious except that most of the board members actually drank the koolaid. For months, we've been trying to get chair Bellfield to follow the part of the CRA ordinance that says the CRA chair “shall notify the executive committee [of the Minneapolis city council] of the chief’s failure to comply with the requirements of this section [172.130, Disciplinary Decisions].” Now that the CRA's report provides proof of Dolan's failure to follow the CRA ordinance, the CRA board was presented with a motion directing their chair to report that failure to the city council, as required by the ordinance. With the city council considering the reappointment of Dolan, timing is critical. Yet, this board refused to pass the motion stating they wanted to try to work things out with Dolan. Again, more proof that they would rather suck up to the power structure than assert their own power and serve the community. No wonder people in the community don't take them seriously.
Finally, the community got to speak. Usually the public speaking portion of the meeting happens before the board conducts business but acting chair weasel Justin Terrell engineered it so they would screw over Dave and the community before the community could try to stop them. Nonetheless, the packed room full of people expressed their sheer disgust with the board's failure to act. The minutes give a pretty accurate depiction of the comments, though it did leave out the part where Terrell tried to shut this editor up and I dared him to call the cops on me.
After seeing the total acquiescence of most of the CRA board to the city administration and police chief, we knew we had to do something. On February 12, we filed a petition for a Writ of Mandamus, a court order directing a public official to follow the law. The writ petition has two parts--one directs Bellfield to give notice to the city council about Dolan's violations of the law and that Dolan is subject to discipline for such failure, and the second part directs Dolan to show cause as to why he is not in violation of the law (he won't be able to, as he is in violation of the law). After the long holiday weekend, Judge Susan Burke granted the first part of our writ ordering Bellfield to submit the required notice to the city council by their 9:30 a.m. meeting the next day or show up in court. He was served the writ at his home but, amazingly, ignored it by neither filing the notice nor showing up in court. Instead, three city attorneys appeared in court (claiming they couldn't get ahold of him) and claimed the report on Dolan WAS the required notice, a ridiculous claim. After a short hearing, Judge Burke indicated she would "take the matter under advisement" and we are still waiting for a ruling. We certainly hope the judge will take note of the fact that a mere two hours after he was to have been in court, Bellfield was interviewed by Andy Mannix with City Pages--so much for being unavailable. Contempt of court doesn't seem like too strong of a sentiment.
We're also awaiting word on when we can depose Chief Dolan for the second half of the writ petition. This should happen soon.
At this point, the CRA board has done so much bowing to the power elite of this city that they really have ensured that the CRA cannot carry out its mission. This is truly sickening, given how hard the community has fought for a CRA in the first place. Perhaps the court will force the board chair to take a small action to reclaim the power of the CRA. Perhaps the court will also help to hold Chief Dolan accountable for thumbing his nose at CRA complaints. No matter what, the majority of the members on the CRA board have outed themselves as sycophants for the current administration. They should step down so they can be replaced by people who have the backbones to do the job.
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Haitians fight for their lives: 'Crucial 72 hour survival window closing"
Wyclef Jean for people stateside: "Please text YELE to 501501 to donate $5
to Yele Haiti. Your money will help with relief efforts. They need our
help..please help if you can." http://www.yele.org
to Yele Haiti. Your money will help with relief efforts. They need our
help..please help if you can." http://www.yele.org
Thursday, January 14, 2010
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ALIOUNE DIOP, THE MAN AND HIS WORK FACING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES May 3-5, 2010 Conference Center of the Hotel Méridien Présid
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
ALIOUNE DIOP, THE MAN AND HIS WORK FACING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
May 3-5, 2010
Conference Center of the Hotel Méridien Président, Dakar, Senegal
Argument
The celebration of the hundredth birthday of Alioune Diop fortuitously
coincides with that of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of
a large number of African countries. The African Community of Culture
is taking the initiative of inviting intellectuals, women and men of
culture to an international symposium on Alioune Diop, the man and his
work facing contemporary challenges.
By way of a very open discussion, the symposium will consider the
numerous dimensions of the work of an original and "universalist"
humanist; a man of dialogue, a pragmatic and committed man; a
freedom-loving African who refused any kind of racism. Alioune Diop it
is all that and a man of his time who summed up the sense of his
commitment to the editorial adventure of Présence Africaine: * As long
as the required standards are met, all articles will be published,
whenever they concern Africa, on condition that they betray neither
our antiracist, anticolonialist stand, nor our solidarity with the
colonized people *. As the first African to practice with rigour the
job of a publisher, he gave rise to talents that, without his
determination, would have undoubtedly been stifled by the implacable
ideological and repressive machine set up by the colonial system.
Thus, in Africa and in its diasporas, literary and scientific
productions of quality could be confirmed in changeable and various
contexts, marked by numerous challenges. That's why, after fifty years
of independence, it is important to review the work of Présence
Africaine in order to draw teachings for the future.
The hundredth birthday of the founder of the Présence Africaine
journal, this incomparable tool which in the service of the creation
of intellectuals in Africa and within the diasporas, forged by a man
who has lived as a model of efficiency and generosity in advancing his
ideal, gives us a lasting opportunity to ponder on the timeliness of
his struggle. By drawing inspiration from an exceptional trajectory,
we must read the past anew, think of the present time and imagine a
future.
The symposium will be held during three days with five thematic panels
including a panel dedicated to youth-centered issues.
- Panel I: Présence Africaine: decolonization and cultural future of
Africa and its diasporas
- Panel II: Is it fitting to talk about Pan-Africanism and about a
Black World today?
- Panel III: The role of the African intellectuals and of the
diasporas in updating Alioune Diop's project.
- Panel IV: The timeliness of the Présence Africaine project in the
production and dissemination of knowledge in the 21st century.
- Panel V: Dialogue with young people. The timeliness of the Présence
Africaine's project and the issue of transmitting memories.
Participation form:
Name Forenames
Title: Rank / Function
Address
Tél: Office Home
Fax: Office
Email:
I wish to make a presentation in Panel n*1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Kindly specify the title of your presentation(s):
Kindly forward a 10 to 20 lines abstract, if possible in French,
English, Spanish and Portuguese.
NB. Should you wish to make several presentations, you will have to
fill several forms.
Registration is free.
Kindly fill the form(s) and return to:
mariaida02@hotmail.com & gassamamakhily@yahoo.fr
Deadline: March 15, 2010
ALIOUNE DIOP, THE MAN AND HIS WORK FACING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
May 3-5, 2010
Conference Center of the Hotel Méridien Président, Dakar, Senegal
Argument
The celebration of the hundredth birthday of Alioune Diop fortuitously
coincides with that of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of
a large number of African countries. The African Community of Culture
is taking the initiative of inviting intellectuals, women and men of
culture to an international symposium on Alioune Diop, the man and his
work facing contemporary challenges.
By way of a very open discussion, the symposium will consider the
numerous dimensions of the work of an original and "universalist"
humanist; a man of dialogue, a pragmatic and committed man; a
freedom-loving African who refused any kind of racism. Alioune Diop it
is all that and a man of his time who summed up the sense of his
commitment to the editorial adventure of Présence Africaine: * As long
as the required standards are met, all articles will be published,
whenever they concern Africa, on condition that they betray neither
our antiracist, anticolonialist stand, nor our solidarity with the
colonized people *. As the first African to practice with rigour the
job of a publisher, he gave rise to talents that, without his
determination, would have undoubtedly been stifled by the implacable
ideological and repressive machine set up by the colonial system.
Thus, in Africa and in its diasporas, literary and scientific
productions of quality could be confirmed in changeable and various
contexts, marked by numerous challenges. That's why, after fifty years
of independence, it is important to review the work of Présence
Africaine in order to draw teachings for the future.
The hundredth birthday of the founder of the Présence Africaine
journal, this incomparable tool which in the service of the creation
of intellectuals in Africa and within the diasporas, forged by a man
who has lived as a model of efficiency and generosity in advancing his
ideal, gives us a lasting opportunity to ponder on the timeliness of
his struggle. By drawing inspiration from an exceptional trajectory,
we must read the past anew, think of the present time and imagine a
future.
The symposium will be held during three days with five thematic panels
including a panel dedicated to youth-centered issues.
- Panel I: Présence Africaine: decolonization and cultural future of
Africa and its diasporas
- Panel II: Is it fitting to talk about Pan-Africanism and about a
Black World today?
- Panel III: The role of the African intellectuals and of the
diasporas in updating Alioune Diop's project.
- Panel IV: The timeliness of the Présence Africaine project in the
production and dissemination of knowledge in the 21st century.
- Panel V: Dialogue with young people. The timeliness of the Présence
Africaine's project and the issue of transmitting memories.
Participation form:
Name Forenames
Title: Rank / Function
Address
Tél: Office Home
Fax: Office
Email:
I wish to make a presentation in Panel n*1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Kindly specify the title of your presentation(s):
Kindly forward a 10 to 20 lines abstract, if possible in French,
English, Spanish and Portuguese.
NB. Should you wish to make several presentations, you will have to
fill several forms.
Registration is free.
Kindly fill the form(s) and return to:
mariaida02@hotmail.com & gassamamakhily@yahoo.fr
Deadline: March 15, 2010
RIP Teddy Pendergrass
Another day of loss for the African diaspora....this baritone sang what would become the theme song of my pathetic to barely visible love life" Love TKO.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Help Haiti anyway you can
Texting “HAITI” to 90999 will charge a $10 donation to the Red Cross on your next phone bill. Texting “yele” to 510 510 is also being tweeted and re-tweeted as a way to donate $5 to relief efforts via Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.
Health and Education Relief Organization, www.herononprofit.org
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, www.haitiaction.net
Haitian Food Relief Organization for Children, www.ehow.com.
see also:
Health and Education Relief Organization, www.herononprofit.org
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, www.haitiaction.net
Haitian Food Relief Organization for Children, www.ehow.com.
see also:
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
BBC News - Haiti earthquake feared to have killed many
I'm seeking information about relief efforts which Blacklogic.blogspot.com will post as soon as we are informed. STAY INFORMED
Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect U.S. Bailout Secrets (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
You know, if and when niggahs eva become UNAFRAID of revolution, the Fed would make a great first place to burn down.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Team Mayweather Muzzled as Arum Screams Coward - Boxing Forum
I gotta admit, Mayweather Jr....I and everyone I know who loves boxing knew you were going to weasel out of this fight...you don't want any of Manny!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
CIA Killings Spell Defeat In Afghanistan : Information Clearing House - ICH
A convincing case (if you weren't already) that that war is lost.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
BBC News - Is Osama Bin Laden dead or alive?
BBC News - Is Osama Bin Laden dead or alive?
Like most major american outlets, bbc is for the most part a propaganda tool of the shadow bankers running most western economies. This is a story they could have/should have done at least five years ago. The timing is ominously odd, what say you?
Like most major american outlets, bbc is for the most part a propaganda tool of the shadow bankers running most western economies. This is a story they could have/should have done at least five years ago. The timing is ominously odd, what say you?
Friday, January 08, 2010
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS: CORRECTION
January 6, 2010
**********************************************
CORRECTION
In the haste to get out a newsletter after a long day at work, this editor made an error with one of the names in the article Happy New Year. Our sincere apologies. The corrected article:
2009 was certainly a busy year in CUAPB land, with the filing of our lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis for withholding CRA complaint data, the huge and technically challenging project of obtaining and cataloging RNC film footage from the City of St. Paul, supporting a record number of cases through our hotline, working for justice in the Fong Lee, Quincy Smith, Brandon Rodriguez and other cases. 2010 looks to be even busier. We'll begin airing a monthly cable access TV show soon and we're in the middle of launching other important initiatives that we're not quite ready to talk about yet. Let's just say that we think the work we will be doing should have a real impact on reducing levels of police brutality and increasing police accountability in our area. These have always been our twin goals and we look forward to working with you toward achieving them this year.
MPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS
Robert Palmer Court Hearing
FREE SPEECH CASE
1/6/10 at 1:30 p.m.
Dakota County Courthouse
14955 West Galaxie Avenue, Apple Valley
Here's Robert's story: On June 30, 2009 I honked my truck horn for peace while waiting for the light to change for a left hand turn at the intersection of Burnsville Parkway and Nicollet Avenue in Burnsville, Minnesota. Police were monitoring our peace vigil and they videotaped me while I was in the turn lane honking. Last year in response to other people getting ticketed for honking as they passed our vigil, the ACLU went to Court for one ticketed person and obtained a consent decree with the city of Burnsville. The consent decree stated that people would not be ticketed for honking at our vigil unless there was a safety issue. I was confident that by honking my horn and exercising my free speech I was not likely to be challenged by police. However, because in late June a car had struck a pedestrian several blocks away and an hour earlier than our vigil, the police Chief was now claiming that we were causing a safety hazard. I received a ticket in the mail. The ACLU agreed to represent me and ACLU attorney Howard Bass is handling my case. I invite persons who believe in free speech to come to show their support for our Constitutional right to express ourselves with free speech and horns.
CRA COMMUNITY FORUM
ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF POLICE CHIEF TIM DOLAN
1/6/10 at 7:00 p.m.
Minneapolis City Hall, 350 S 5th Street, Room 319
Here's a rundown of this event by CRA board member Dave Bicking: The CRA faces many challenges, not the least of which is a refusal of the Police Chief to impose meaningful discipline in most cases where we have substantiated charges of police misconduct. Tomorrow night's forum will address that issue, and other ways in which Chief Dolan's performance has impacted the ability of the CRA to carry out its mission. We have issued a report on the Chief's performance in areas important to the CRA. We will be presenting that report, discussing its implications, and soliciting questions and suggestions from those who come. I encourage you to come - to find out more about the relationship between the CRA and the Police Chief, and to help support the CRA, and the overall goal of accountability through civilian oversight of the police. Copies of the document will be available at the meeting. It can also be found online, at: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf
At this point, the mission of the CRA is in serious jeopardy. If we are to provide the service that is expected of us, we need better performance from the Police Chief. We can't leave it up to the Police to police the Police. The city ordinance that governs the CRA gives us the duty and power to participate in the performance review of the Chief of Police. That is what we have done, and we hope that our conclusions will be listened to.
Police Chief Dolan is up for re-appointment this January. There will be at least one public hearing on his re-appointment to another 3 year term. I hope you will also participate in that, and that this report and this forum will help inform you and others about the issue.
IRISH CEILI TO BENEFIT THE RNC 8
1/16/10 at 7:00 p.m.
TC Friends Meeting House
1725 Grand Ave, St. Paul
Suggested donation $5 - $15
Leave it to the RNC 8 to find another really fun way to raise funds. Long-time activist Mike Whalen will teach traditional Irish dancing and The Blackbirds will provide the tunes. Polish up you dance shoes and mark your calendar for this all-ages event. Come on out to rock your rear for this really great cause. Defend the RNC 8! Dissent is not a crime!
___________________________________________________________
FREE SPEECH: Pittsburgh Man Gives Cop Middle Finger, Gets $50,000
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/pittsbugh-man-gives-cop-m_n_369982.html
11/24/09
PITTSBURGH (Associated Press) -- Pittsburgh City Council has tentatively approved paying $50,000 to settle a free speech lawsuit filed by a man cited for giving a city police officer the middle finger.
Thirty-five-year-old David Hackbart, of Butler, made the gesture at a driver in April 2006, then did it again when someone yelled at him -- realizing only later the second person was a police officer.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued saying Hackbart's gesture was constitutionally protected speech. A federal judge postponed a September trial indefinitely at the request of attorneys on both sides.
Council gave initial approval to the settlement Tuesday, but must vote again next week to finally approve the payment.
No court documents settling the case have been filed.
___________________________________________________________
PRIVACY RIGHTS: Cellphone Searches
December 26, 2009
The Ohio Supreme Court has struck an important blow for privacy rights, ruling that the police need a warrant to search a cellphone. The court rightly recognized that cellphones today are a lot more than just telephones, that they hold a wealth of personal information and that the privacy interest in them is considerable. This was the first such ruling from a state supreme court. It is a model for other courts to follow.
Searches generally require warrants, but courts have carved out limited categories in which they are not needed. One of these is that police officers are allowed, when they arrest people, to search them and the area immediately surrounding them, as well as some kinds of containers in their possession.
When the police arrested Antwaun Smith on drug charges they seized his cellphone and searched it, examining his call records. The police did not have a warrant or the consent of Mr. Smith.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled this month, by a 4-to-3 vote, that the search violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Rather than seeing a cellphone as a simple closed container, the majority noted that modern cellphones especially ones that permit Internet access are “capable of storing a wealth of digitized information.”
This is information, the court said, for which people reasonably have a high expectation of privacy, and under established Fourth Amendment principles, police officers must get a search warrant before they can look through call logs or examine other data. The court wisely decided that it made no sense to try to distinguish among various kinds of cellphones based on what specific functions they have. All cellphones, the court said, fall under the search warrant requirement.
Few federal courts have considered the issue of cellphone searches, and they have disagreed about whether a warrant should be required. The Ohio ruling eloquently makes the case for why the very personal information that new forms of technology aggregate must be accorded a significant degree of privacy.
___________________________________________________________
SHADES OF POST RNC: DC agrees to pay $13M over arrests of protesters
By Sarah Karush
Associated Press
11/23/09
WASHINGTON The District of Columbia said Monday it has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a lawsuit by protesters arrested during demonstrations nine years ago.
The preliminary agreement includes a maximum payment of $18,000 to each of the 680 people who were arrested at the April 2000 protests tied to meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said the maximum payout, including attorneys' fees is $13.3 million. However, because of the cap on individual payouts, the total could be less, depending on how many people come forward.
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, of the Partnership for Civil Justice, said that in addition to the $13.3 million for the class, there are some additional payments for specific plaintiffs who claim they were beaten, bringing the total to $13.7 million. Verheyden-Hilliard's group represented the plaintiffs.
According to the class-action lawsuit, protesters and bystanders were trapped on all sides by police and then arrested in a calculated attempt to disrupt days of planned protests. Many people were held for hours without access to food, water and restrooms, and some were held in stress positions, the plaintiffs alleged.
As part of the settlement, D.C. police assigned to demonstrations and officers from partner agencies will receive enhanced training, said Verheyden-Hilliard.
But Nickles said the police department has already changed significantly since the time of the mass arrests in 2000 and 2002.
"I'm committed to try to get this chapter of sound and fury closed with respect to these demonstration cases," Nickles said.
Earlier this month, the city settled a lawsuit with eight anti-war protesters arrested in 2002, agreeing to pay $450,000.
Verheyden-Hilliard said Monday's announcement sends an important message: "People are willing to spend as long as it takes to vindicate their rights."
The case is known as Becker et al. v. District of Columbia. It's named after Benjamin Becker. Now 25, Becker was a 16-year-old from Baltimore when he came to Washington to protest "against the broad, neoliberal, globalization agenda" with his father, who helped organize the demonstration.
After the arrests, Becker was separated from his father and taken to a juvenile facility.
His father, Brian Becker, ended up being held for hours in a stress position, with his right hand tied to his left foot, the elder Becker recalled. He refused to pay a fine and was the only demonstrator arrested that day who was brought to trial. He was acquitted of disorderly conduct and refusal to obey.
___________________________________________________________
SICK COP: Court says Mpls. officer went too far in fondling during prostitution sting
[Editor's note: Despite this ruling from the courts, the officer has yet to be disciplined by his boss, Tim Dolan.]
By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune
Last update: November 24, 2009 - 9:51 PM
http://www.startribune.com/local/72691882.html?elr=KArksUUUU
An undercover Minneapolis police officer engaged in outrageous conduct when he fondled a masseuse who was the target of a prostitution investigation, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in a decision that could open the door for criminal defendants in other sting investigations.
The police officer, David Pleoger, violated Betsy Burkland's right to due process when he initiated the sexual contact with her and allowed it to escalate, Judge Wilhelmina Wright wrote in a decision for a three-judge panel that also included Judges Terri Stoneburner and Larry Stauber.
Burkland was appealing her conviction in a lower court. Her attorney said he believes the decision marks the first time an appellate court in the United States has ruled that an officer's sexual conduct in a prostitution sting violated due process.
The ruling said that the officer went to Peaceful Image Tanning and Bodyworks in 2008 after receiving a tip about prostitution. He met Burkland, arranged a one-hour massage for $70 and then took off his clothes in a massage room. When Burkland entered the room, she offered to perform the massage topless for an extra $30 and the officer accepted.
After a while, Burkland asked the officer to turn onto his back, and he asked if he could touch her breasts, the court said. She put oil on her hands and rubbed his genitals. He asked if the "release" was included in the $100 fee and she said yes.
Through her lawyer, Jeffrey Dean, Burkland said that she is thankful for the decision. "I hope this will deter the police from treating other similarly situated women in such a manner."
Said Dean: "The proper way to conduct a prostitution sting is for the officer to get a verbal agreement of sex for money and then make the arrest. The evidence is the words of the agreement. The police are not free to go on and sport with the suspected prostitute."
He called Pleoger's conduct "outrageous and abusive."
The court's decision said that to prove prostitution, an officer had to show that Burkland "agreed to engage" in sexual contact for money.
Wright wrote that Pleoger could have obtained the information needed for a conviction by inquiring about the "release" at any point in the conversation.
The officer's initiation of sexual contact met the threshold for outrageous governmental conduct and reversal of the convictions, the court determined. The state Supreme Court has previously ruled that an undercover officer can expose himself to a prostitute at her insistence to avoid being discovered as law enforcement.
"There is no evidence in the record, nor did the officer contend, that Burkland's conduct was necessary to dispel a suspicion that he was a police officer," Wright wrote.
Reaction to verdict
Twin Cities defense attorney Ryan Pacyga said the case signals that the court is willing to restrict police conduct, noting that the touching of the breasts was enough to get the case thrown out. He said a similar defense could be used in drug and fraud investigations. "To me it's an exciting defense. You can bet that I'm going to try it," Pacyga said.
The case was initially heard by Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter.
Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal said the city is disappointed. "This case went to trial, and the District Court ruled that the officer's conduct was in line with constitutional standards for a criminal investigation," she said. "This was an investigation triggered by complaints about the operation of a massage parlor."
She said the city is reviewing the decision and considering whether to appeal.
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said only that he is asking for an internal inquiry into how the investigation was handled.
Pacyga said he expects the city to appeal.
The current state Supreme Court has recently issued decisions showing a willingness to restrict defendants' options, including a ruling that bong water is a controlled substance and that sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of release isn't cruel or unusual.
Pleoger, who is assigned to the Third Precinct in south Minneapolis, didn't return a call.
Rochelle Olson 612-673-1747
___________________________________________________________
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: Colbert Makes Comic Fodder of Minneapolis Cops
Check out the hilarious video of Stephen Colbert taking on one of Minneapolis' recent Taser incidents: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/255218/november-10-2009/current-events---latest-police-tasings---taser-xrep As he says, "An officer uses a Minnesota man as human jumper cables, and the Taser XREP lets you tase people from the comfort of your clock tower. Don't forget to play our home game."
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
EMAIL NEWS: CORRECTION
January 6, 2010
**********************************************
CORRECTION
In the haste to get out a newsletter after a long day at work, this editor made an error with one of the names in the article Happy New Year. Our sincere apologies. The corrected article:
2009 was certainly a busy year in CUAPB land, with the filing of our lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis for withholding CRA complaint data, the huge and technically challenging project of obtaining and cataloging RNC film footage from the City of St. Paul, supporting a record number of cases through our hotline, working for justice in the Fong Lee, Quincy Smith, Brandon Rodriguez and other cases. 2010 looks to be even busier. We'll begin airing a monthly cable access TV show soon and we're in the middle of launching other important initiatives that we're not quite ready to talk about yet. Let's just say that we think the work we will be doing should have a real impact on reducing levels of police brutality and increasing police accountability in our area. These have always been our twin goals and we look forward to working with you toward achieving them this year.
MPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS
Robert Palmer Court Hearing
FREE SPEECH CASE
1/6/10 at 1:30 p.m.
Dakota County Courthouse
14955 West Galaxie Avenue, Apple Valley
Here's Robert's story: On June 30, 2009 I honked my truck horn for peace while waiting for the light to change for a left hand turn at the intersection of Burnsville Parkway and Nicollet Avenue in Burnsville, Minnesota. Police were monitoring our peace vigil and they videotaped me while I was in the turn lane honking. Last year in response to other people getting ticketed for honking as they passed our vigil, the ACLU went to Court for one ticketed person and obtained a consent decree with the city of Burnsville. The consent decree stated that people would not be ticketed for honking at our vigil unless there was a safety issue. I was confident that by honking my horn and exercising my free speech I was not likely to be challenged by police. However, because in late June a car had struck a pedestrian several blocks away and an hour earlier than our vigil, the police Chief was now claiming that we were causing a safety hazard. I received a ticket in the mail. The ACLU agreed to represent me and ACLU attorney Howard Bass is handling my case. I invite persons who believe in free speech to come to show their support for our Constitutional right to express ourselves with free speech and horns.
CRA COMMUNITY FORUM
ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF POLICE CHIEF TIM DOLAN
1/6/10 at 7:00 p.m.
Minneapolis City Hall, 350 S 5th Street, Room 319
Here's a rundown of this event by CRA board member Dave Bicking: The CRA faces many challenges, not the least of which is a refusal of the Police Chief to impose meaningful discipline in most cases where we have substantiated charges of police misconduct. Tomorrow night's forum will address that issue, and other ways in which Chief Dolan's performance has impacted the ability of the CRA to carry out its mission. We have issued a report on the Chief's performance in areas important to the CRA. We will be presenting that report, discussing its implications, and soliciting questions and suggestions from those who come. I encourage you to come - to find out more about the relationship between the CRA and the Police Chief, and to help support the CRA, and the overall goal of accountability through civilian oversight of the police. Copies of the document will be available at the meeting. It can also be found online, at: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf
At this point, the mission of the CRA is in serious jeopardy. If we are to provide the service that is expected of us, we need better performance from the Police Chief. We can't leave it up to the Police to police the Police. The city ordinance that governs the CRA gives us the duty and power to participate in the performance review of the Chief of Police. That is what we have done, and we hope that our conclusions will be listened to.
Police Chief Dolan is up for re-appointment this January. There will be at least one public hearing on his re-appointment to another 3 year term. I hope you will also participate in that, and that this report and this forum will help inform you and others about the issue.
IRISH CEILI TO BENEFIT THE RNC 8
1/16/10 at 7:00 p.m.
TC Friends Meeting House
1725 Grand Ave, St. Paul
Suggested donation $5 - $15
Leave it to the RNC 8 to find another really fun way to raise funds. Long-time activist Mike Whalen will teach traditional Irish dancing and The Blackbirds will provide the tunes. Polish up you dance shoes and mark your calendar for this all-ages event. Come on out to rock your rear for this really great cause. Defend the RNC 8! Dissent is not a crime!
___________________________________________________________
FREE SPEECH: Pittsburgh Man Gives Cop Middle Finger, Gets $50,000
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/pittsbugh-man-gives-cop-m_n_369982.html
11/24/09
PITTSBURGH (Associated Press) -- Pittsburgh City Council has tentatively approved paying $50,000 to settle a free speech lawsuit filed by a man cited for giving a city police officer the middle finger.
Thirty-five-year-old David Hackbart, of Butler, made the gesture at a driver in April 2006, then did it again when someone yelled at him -- realizing only later the second person was a police officer.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued saying Hackbart's gesture was constitutionally protected speech. A federal judge postponed a September trial indefinitely at the request of attorneys on both sides.
Council gave initial approval to the settlement Tuesday, but must vote again next week to finally approve the payment.
No court documents settling the case have been filed.
___________________________________________________________
PRIVACY RIGHTS: Cellphone Searches
December 26, 2009
The Ohio Supreme Court has struck an important blow for privacy rights, ruling that the police need a warrant to search a cellphone. The court rightly recognized that cellphones today are a lot more than just telephones, that they hold a wealth of personal information and that the privacy interest in them is considerable. This was the first such ruling from a state supreme court. It is a model for other courts to follow.
Searches generally require warrants, but courts have carved out limited categories in which they are not needed. One of these is that police officers are allowed, when they arrest people, to search them and the area immediately surrounding them, as well as some kinds of containers in their possession.
When the police arrested Antwaun Smith on drug charges they seized his cellphone and searched it, examining his call records. The police did not have a warrant or the consent of Mr. Smith.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled this month, by a 4-to-3 vote, that the search violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Rather than seeing a cellphone as a simple closed container, the majority noted that modern cellphones especially ones that permit Internet access are “capable of storing a wealth of digitized information.”
This is information, the court said, for which people reasonably have a high expectation of privacy, and under established Fourth Amendment principles, police officers must get a search warrant before they can look through call logs or examine other data. The court wisely decided that it made no sense to try to distinguish among various kinds of cellphones based on what specific functions they have. All cellphones, the court said, fall under the search warrant requirement.
Few federal courts have considered the issue of cellphone searches, and they have disagreed about whether a warrant should be required. The Ohio ruling eloquently makes the case for why the very personal information that new forms of technology aggregate must be accorded a significant degree of privacy.
___________________________________________________________
SHADES OF POST RNC: DC agrees to pay $13M over arrests of protesters
By Sarah Karush
Associated Press
11/23/09
WASHINGTON The District of Columbia said Monday it has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a lawsuit by protesters arrested during demonstrations nine years ago.
The preliminary agreement includes a maximum payment of $18,000 to each of the 680 people who were arrested at the April 2000 protests tied to meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said the maximum payout, including attorneys' fees is $13.3 million. However, because of the cap on individual payouts, the total could be less, depending on how many people come forward.
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, of the Partnership for Civil Justice, said that in addition to the $13.3 million for the class, there are some additional payments for specific plaintiffs who claim they were beaten, bringing the total to $13.7 million. Verheyden-Hilliard's group represented the plaintiffs.
According to the class-action lawsuit, protesters and bystanders were trapped on all sides by police and then arrested in a calculated attempt to disrupt days of planned protests. Many people were held for hours without access to food, water and restrooms, and some were held in stress positions, the plaintiffs alleged.
As part of the settlement, D.C. police assigned to demonstrations and officers from partner agencies will receive enhanced training, said Verheyden-Hilliard.
But Nickles said the police department has already changed significantly since the time of the mass arrests in 2000 and 2002.
"I'm committed to try to get this chapter of sound and fury closed with respect to these demonstration cases," Nickles said.
Earlier this month, the city settled a lawsuit with eight anti-war protesters arrested in 2002, agreeing to pay $450,000.
Verheyden-Hilliard said Monday's announcement sends an important message: "People are willing to spend as long as it takes to vindicate their rights."
The case is known as Becker et al. v. District of Columbia. It's named after Benjamin Becker. Now 25, Becker was a 16-year-old from Baltimore when he came to Washington to protest "against the broad, neoliberal, globalization agenda" with his father, who helped organize the demonstration.
After the arrests, Becker was separated from his father and taken to a juvenile facility.
His father, Brian Becker, ended up being held for hours in a stress position, with his right hand tied to his left foot, the elder Becker recalled. He refused to pay a fine and was the only demonstrator arrested that day who was brought to trial. He was acquitted of disorderly conduct and refusal to obey.
___________________________________________________________
SICK COP: Court says Mpls. officer went too far in fondling during prostitution sting
[Editor's note: Despite this ruling from the courts, the officer has yet to be disciplined by his boss, Tim Dolan.]
By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune
Last update: November 24, 2009 - 9:51 PM
http://www.startribune.com/local/72691882.html?elr=KArksUUUU
An undercover Minneapolis police officer engaged in outrageous conduct when he fondled a masseuse who was the target of a prostitution investigation, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in a decision that could open the door for criminal defendants in other sting investigations.
The police officer, David Pleoger, violated Betsy Burkland's right to due process when he initiated the sexual contact with her and allowed it to escalate, Judge Wilhelmina Wright wrote in a decision for a three-judge panel that also included Judges Terri Stoneburner and Larry Stauber.
Burkland was appealing her conviction in a lower court. Her attorney said he believes the decision marks the first time an appellate court in the United States has ruled that an officer's sexual conduct in a prostitution sting violated due process.
The ruling said that the officer went to Peaceful Image Tanning and Bodyworks in 2008 after receiving a tip about prostitution. He met Burkland, arranged a one-hour massage for $70 and then took off his clothes in a massage room. When Burkland entered the room, she offered to perform the massage topless for an extra $30 and the officer accepted.
After a while, Burkland asked the officer to turn onto his back, and he asked if he could touch her breasts, the court said. She put oil on her hands and rubbed his genitals. He asked if the "release" was included in the $100 fee and she said yes.
Through her lawyer, Jeffrey Dean, Burkland said that she is thankful for the decision. "I hope this will deter the police from treating other similarly situated women in such a manner."
Said Dean: "The proper way to conduct a prostitution sting is for the officer to get a verbal agreement of sex for money and then make the arrest. The evidence is the words of the agreement. The police are not free to go on and sport with the suspected prostitute."
He called Pleoger's conduct "outrageous and abusive."
The court's decision said that to prove prostitution, an officer had to show that Burkland "agreed to engage" in sexual contact for money.
Wright wrote that Pleoger could have obtained the information needed for a conviction by inquiring about the "release" at any point in the conversation.
The officer's initiation of sexual contact met the threshold for outrageous governmental conduct and reversal of the convictions, the court determined. The state Supreme Court has previously ruled that an undercover officer can expose himself to a prostitute at her insistence to avoid being discovered as law enforcement.
"There is no evidence in the record, nor did the officer contend, that Burkland's conduct was necessary to dispel a suspicion that he was a police officer," Wright wrote.
Reaction to verdict
Twin Cities defense attorney Ryan Pacyga said the case signals that the court is willing to restrict police conduct, noting that the touching of the breasts was enough to get the case thrown out. He said a similar defense could be used in drug and fraud investigations. "To me it's an exciting defense. You can bet that I'm going to try it," Pacyga said.
The case was initially heard by Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter.
Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal said the city is disappointed. "This case went to trial, and the District Court ruled that the officer's conduct was in line with constitutional standards for a criminal investigation," she said. "This was an investigation triggered by complaints about the operation of a massage parlor."
She said the city is reviewing the decision and considering whether to appeal.
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said only that he is asking for an internal inquiry into how the investigation was handled.
Pacyga said he expects the city to appeal.
The current state Supreme Court has recently issued decisions showing a willingness to restrict defendants' options, including a ruling that bong water is a controlled substance and that sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of release isn't cruel or unusual.
Pleoger, who is assigned to the Third Precinct in south Minneapolis, didn't return a call.
Rochelle Olson 612-673-1747
___________________________________________________________
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: Colbert Makes Comic Fodder of Minneapolis Cops
Check out the hilarious video of Stephen Colbert taking on one of Minneapolis' recent Taser incidents: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/255218/november-10-2009/current-events---latest-police-tasings---taser-xrep As he says, "An officer uses a Minnesota man as human jumper cables, and the Taser XREP lets you tase people from the comfort of your clock tower. Don't forget to play our home game."
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Monday, January 04, 2010
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons' - Times Online
Anyone who grew up watching the Partridge Family coulda told you that!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Chile revisited: TIME: Was the US involved?
Damn right they were, but they tried to blame my father (RIP) for spreading rumors we now know to be true.
My father's name appears in the fifth paragraph.
My father's name appears in the fifth paragraph.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
ICH: Obama, the worlds least powerful man(?)
The World’s Least Powerful Man
The Obama Puppet
By Paul Craig Roberts
December 01, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- It didn’t take the Israel Lobby very long to bring President Obama to heel regarding his prohibition against further illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Obama discovered that a mere American president is powerless when confronted by the Israel Lobby and that the United States simply is not allowed a Middle East policy separate from Israel’s.
Obama also found out that he cannot change anything else either, if he ever intended to do so.
The military/security lobby has war and a domestic police state on its agenda, and a mere American president can’t do anything about it.
President Obama can order the Guantanamo torture chamber closed and kidnapping and rendition and torture to be halted, but no one carries out the order.
Essentially, Obama is irrelevant.
President Obama can promise that he is going to bring the troops home, and the military lobby says, “No, you are going to send them to Afghanistan, and in the meantime start a war in Pakistan and maneuver Iran into a position that will provide an excuse for a war there, too. Wars are too profitable for us to let you stop them.” And the mere president has to say, “Yes, Sir!”
Obama can promise health care to 50 million uninsured Americans, but he can’t override the veto of the war lobby and the insurance lobby. The war lobby says its war profits are more important than health care and that the country can’t afford both the “war on terror” and “socialized medicine.”
The insurance lobby says health care has to be provided by private health insurance; otherwise, we can’t afford it.
The war and insurance lobbies rattled their campaign contribution pocketbooks and quickly convinced Congress and the White House that the real purpose of the health care bill is to save money by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits, thereby “getting entitlements under control.”
Entitlements is a right-wing word used to cast aspersion on the few things that the government did, in the distant past, for citizens. Social Security and Medicare, for example, are denigrated as “entitlements.” The right-wing goes on endlessly about Social Security and Medicare as if they were welfare give-aways to shiftless people who refuse to look after themselves, whereas in actual fact citizens are vastly overcharged for the meager benefits with a 15% tax on their wages and salaries.
Indeed, for decades now the federal government has been funding its wars and military budgets with the surplus revenues collected by the Social Security tax on labor.
To claim, as the right-wing does, that we can’t afford the only thing in the entire budget that has consistently produced a revenue surplus indicates that the real agenda is to drive the mere citizen into the ground.
The real entitlements are never mentioned. The “defense” budget is an entitlement for the military/security complex about which President Eisenhower warned us 50 years ago. A person has to be crazy to believe that the United States, “the world’s only superpower,” protected by oceans on its East and West and by puppet states on its North and South, needs a “defense” budget larger than the military spending of the rest of the world combined.
The military budget is nothing but an entitlement for the military/security complex. To hide this fact, the entitlement is disguised as protection against “enemies” and passed through the Pentagon.
I say cut out the middleman and simply allocate a percentage of the federal budget to the military/security complex. This way we won’t have to concoct reasons for invading other countries and go to war in order for the military/security complex to get its entitlement. It would be a lot cheaper just to give them the money outright, and it
would save a lot of lives and grief at home and abroad.
The US invasion of Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with American national interests. It had to do with armaments profits and with eliminating an obstacle to Israeli territorial expansion. The cost of the war, aside from the $3 trillion, was over 4,000 dead Americans, over 30,000 wounded and maimed Americans, tens of thousands of broken American marriages and lost careers, one million dead Iraqis, four million displaced Iraqis, and a destroyed country.
All of this was done for the profits of the military/security complex and to make paranoid Israel, armed with 200 nuclear weapons, feel “secure.”
My proposal would make the military/security complex even more wealthy as the companies would get the money without having to produce the weapons. Instead, all the money could go for multi-million dollar bonuses and dividend payouts to shareholders. No one, at home or abroad, would have to be killed, and the taxpayer would be better off.
No American national interest is served by the war in Afghanistan. As the former UK Ambassador Craig Murray disclosed, the purpose of the war is to protect Unocal’s interest in the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline. The cost of the war is many times greater than Unocal’s investment in the pipeline. The obvious solution is to buy out Unocal and give the pipeline to the Afghans as partial compensation for the destruction we have inflicted on that country and its population, and bring the troops home.
The reason my sensible solutions cannot be effected is that the lobbies think that their entitlements would not survive if they were made obvious. They think that if the American people knew that the wars were being fought to enrich the armaments and oil industries, the people would put a halt to the wars.
In actual fact, the American people have no say about what “their” government does. Polls of the public show that half or more of the American people do not support the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and do not support President Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Yet, the occupations and wars continue. According to General Stanley McChrystal, the additional 40,000 troops are enough to stalemate the war, that is, to keep it going forever, the ideal situation for the armaments lobby.
The people want health care, but the government does not listen.
The people want jobs, but Wall Street wants higher priced stocks and forces American firms to offshore the jobs to countries where labor is cheaper.
The American people have no effect on anything. They can affect nothing. They have become irrelevant like Obama. And they will remain irrelevant as long as organized interest groups can purchase the US government.
The inability of the American democracy to produce any results that the voters want is a demonstrated fact. The total unresponsiveness of government to the people is conservatism’s contribution to American democracy. Some years ago there was an effort to put government back into the hands of the people by constraining the ability of organized interest groups to pour enormous amounts of money into political campaigns and, thus, obligate the elected official to those whose money elected him. Conservatives said that any restraints would be a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
The same “protectors” of “free speech” had no objection to the Israel Lobby’s passage of the “hate speech” bill, which has criminalized criticism of Israel’s genocidal treatment of the Palestinians and continuing theft of their lands.
In less than one year, President Obama has betrayed all of his supporters and broken all of his promises. He is the total captive of the oligarchy of the ruling interest groups. Unless he is saved by an orchestrated 9/11-type event, Obama is a one-term president. Indeed, the collapsing economy will doom him regardless of a “terrorist event.”
The Republicans are grooming Palin. Our first female president, following our first black president, will complete the transition to an American police state by arresting critics and protesters of Washington’s immoral foreign and domestic policies, and she will complete the destruction of America’s reputation abroad.
Russia’s Putin has already compared the US to Nazi Germany, and the Chinese premier has likened the US to an irresponsible, profligate debtor.
Increasingly the rest of the world sees the US as the sole source of all of its problems. Germany has lost the chief of its armed forces and its defense minister, because the US convinced or pressured, by hook or crook, the German government to violate its Constitution and to send troops to fight for Unocal’s interest in Afghanistan. The Germans had pretended that their troops were not really fighting, but were were engaged in a “peace-keeping operation.” This more or less worked until the Germans called in an air strike that murdered 100 women and children lined up for a fuel allotment.
The British are investigating their leading criminal, former prime minister Tony Blair, and his deception of his own cabinet in order to do Bush’s bidding and provide some cover for Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq. The UK investigators have been denied the ability to bring criminal charges, but the issue of war based entirely on orchestrated deception and lies is getting a hearing. It will reverberate throughout the world, and the world will note that there is no corresponding investigation in the US, the country that originated the False War.
Meanwhile, the US investment banks, which have wrecked the financial stability of many governments, including that of the US, continue to control, as they have done since the Clinton administration, US economic and financial policy. The world has suffered terribly from the Wall Street gangsters, and now looks upon America with a
critical eye.
The United States no longer commands the respect it enjoyed under President Ronald Reagan or President George Herbert Walker Bush. World polls show that the US and its puppet master are regarded as the two greatest threats to peace. Washington and Israel outrank on the most dangerous list the crazy regime in North Korea.
The world is beginning to see America as a country that needs to go away. When the dollar is over-inflated by a Washington unable to pay its bills, will the world be motivated by greed and try to save us in order to save its investments, or will it say, thank God, good riddance
The Obama Puppet
By Paul Craig Roberts
December 01, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- It didn’t take the Israel Lobby very long to bring President Obama to heel regarding his prohibition against further illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Obama discovered that a mere American president is powerless when confronted by the Israel Lobby and that the United States simply is not allowed a Middle East policy separate from Israel’s.
Obama also found out that he cannot change anything else either, if he ever intended to do so.
The military/security lobby has war and a domestic police state on its agenda, and a mere American president can’t do anything about it.
President Obama can order the Guantanamo torture chamber closed and kidnapping and rendition and torture to be halted, but no one carries out the order.
Essentially, Obama is irrelevant.
President Obama can promise that he is going to bring the troops home, and the military lobby says, “No, you are going to send them to Afghanistan, and in the meantime start a war in Pakistan and maneuver Iran into a position that will provide an excuse for a war there, too. Wars are too profitable for us to let you stop them.” And the mere president has to say, “Yes, Sir!”
Obama can promise health care to 50 million uninsured Americans, but he can’t override the veto of the war lobby and the insurance lobby. The war lobby says its war profits are more important than health care and that the country can’t afford both the “war on terror” and “socialized medicine.”
The insurance lobby says health care has to be provided by private health insurance; otherwise, we can’t afford it.
The war and insurance lobbies rattled their campaign contribution pocketbooks and quickly convinced Congress and the White House that the real purpose of the health care bill is to save money by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits, thereby “getting entitlements under control.”
Entitlements is a right-wing word used to cast aspersion on the few things that the government did, in the distant past, for citizens. Social Security and Medicare, for example, are denigrated as “entitlements.” The right-wing goes on endlessly about Social Security and Medicare as if they were welfare give-aways to shiftless people who refuse to look after themselves, whereas in actual fact citizens are vastly overcharged for the meager benefits with a 15% tax on their wages and salaries.
Indeed, for decades now the federal government has been funding its wars and military budgets with the surplus revenues collected by the Social Security tax on labor.
To claim, as the right-wing does, that we can’t afford the only thing in the entire budget that has consistently produced a revenue surplus indicates that the real agenda is to drive the mere citizen into the ground.
The real entitlements are never mentioned. The “defense” budget is an entitlement for the military/security complex about which President Eisenhower warned us 50 years ago. A person has to be crazy to believe that the United States, “the world’s only superpower,” protected by oceans on its East and West and by puppet states on its North and South, needs a “defense” budget larger than the military spending of the rest of the world combined.
The military budget is nothing but an entitlement for the military/security complex. To hide this fact, the entitlement is disguised as protection against “enemies” and passed through the Pentagon.
I say cut out the middleman and simply allocate a percentage of the federal budget to the military/security complex. This way we won’t have to concoct reasons for invading other countries and go to war in order for the military/security complex to get its entitlement. It would be a lot cheaper just to give them the money outright, and it
would save a lot of lives and grief at home and abroad.
The US invasion of Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with American national interests. It had to do with armaments profits and with eliminating an obstacle to Israeli territorial expansion. The cost of the war, aside from the $3 trillion, was over 4,000 dead Americans, over 30,000 wounded and maimed Americans, tens of thousands of broken American marriages and lost careers, one million dead Iraqis, four million displaced Iraqis, and a destroyed country.
All of this was done for the profits of the military/security complex and to make paranoid Israel, armed with 200 nuclear weapons, feel “secure.”
My proposal would make the military/security complex even more wealthy as the companies would get the money without having to produce the weapons. Instead, all the money could go for multi-million dollar bonuses and dividend payouts to shareholders. No one, at home or abroad, would have to be killed, and the taxpayer would be better off.
No American national interest is served by the war in Afghanistan. As the former UK Ambassador Craig Murray disclosed, the purpose of the war is to protect Unocal’s interest in the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline. The cost of the war is many times greater than Unocal’s investment in the pipeline. The obvious solution is to buy out Unocal and give the pipeline to the Afghans as partial compensation for the destruction we have inflicted on that country and its population, and bring the troops home.
The reason my sensible solutions cannot be effected is that the lobbies think that their entitlements would not survive if they were made obvious. They think that if the American people knew that the wars were being fought to enrich the armaments and oil industries, the people would put a halt to the wars.
In actual fact, the American people have no say about what “their” government does. Polls of the public show that half or more of the American people do not support the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and do not support President Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Yet, the occupations and wars continue. According to General Stanley McChrystal, the additional 40,000 troops are enough to stalemate the war, that is, to keep it going forever, the ideal situation for the armaments lobby.
The people want health care, but the government does not listen.
The people want jobs, but Wall Street wants higher priced stocks and forces American firms to offshore the jobs to countries where labor is cheaper.
The American people have no effect on anything. They can affect nothing. They have become irrelevant like Obama. And they will remain irrelevant as long as organized interest groups can purchase the US government.
The inability of the American democracy to produce any results that the voters want is a demonstrated fact. The total unresponsiveness of government to the people is conservatism’s contribution to American democracy. Some years ago there was an effort to put government back into the hands of the people by constraining the ability of organized interest groups to pour enormous amounts of money into political campaigns and, thus, obligate the elected official to those whose money elected him. Conservatives said that any restraints would be a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
The same “protectors” of “free speech” had no objection to the Israel Lobby’s passage of the “hate speech” bill, which has criminalized criticism of Israel’s genocidal treatment of the Palestinians and continuing theft of their lands.
In less than one year, President Obama has betrayed all of his supporters and broken all of his promises. He is the total captive of the oligarchy of the ruling interest groups. Unless he is saved by an orchestrated 9/11-type event, Obama is a one-term president. Indeed, the collapsing economy will doom him regardless of a “terrorist event.”
The Republicans are grooming Palin. Our first female president, following our first black president, will complete the transition to an American police state by arresting critics and protesters of Washington’s immoral foreign and domestic policies, and she will complete the destruction of America’s reputation abroad.
Russia’s Putin has already compared the US to Nazi Germany, and the Chinese premier has likened the US to an irresponsible, profligate debtor.
Increasingly the rest of the world sees the US as the sole source of all of its problems. Germany has lost the chief of its armed forces and its defense minister, because the US convinced or pressured, by hook or crook, the German government to violate its Constitution and to send troops to fight for Unocal’s interest in Afghanistan. The Germans had pretended that their troops were not really fighting, but were were engaged in a “peace-keeping operation.” This more or less worked until the Germans called in an air strike that murdered 100 women and children lined up for a fuel allotment.
The British are investigating their leading criminal, former prime minister Tony Blair, and his deception of his own cabinet in order to do Bush’s bidding and provide some cover for Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq. The UK investigators have been denied the ability to bring criminal charges, but the issue of war based entirely on orchestrated deception and lies is getting a hearing. It will reverberate throughout the world, and the world will note that there is no corresponding investigation in the US, the country that originated the False War.
Meanwhile, the US investment banks, which have wrecked the financial stability of many governments, including that of the US, continue to control, as they have done since the Clinton administration, US economic and financial policy. The world has suffered terribly from the Wall Street gangsters, and now looks upon America with a
critical eye.
The United States no longer commands the respect it enjoyed under President Ronald Reagan or President George Herbert Walker Bush. World polls show that the US and its puppet master are regarded as the two greatest threats to peace. Washington and Israel outrank on the most dangerous list the crazy regime in North Korea.
The world is beginning to see America as a country that needs to go away. When the dollar is over-inflated by a Washington unable to pay its bills, will the world be motivated by greed and try to save us in order to save its investments, or will it say, thank God, good riddance
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Africa's population reaches 1 billion
Think about the hundreds of millions of Africans who died during the Middle Passage and you can guess that Africa would have topped that number probably before China and India.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
Friday, November 06, 2009
ICH, John Nichols: Horror at FT. Hood Inspires predictable Islamophobia
Nichols was one of my editors at the Cap Times aeons ago, and still pumping out quality news analysis at the Nation. Read his book, The Genius of Impeachment
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Italy convicts 23 Americans for illegal rendition
Now, if only our own government had the integrity, and courage of the Italians Cheney and his ventriliquism doll Bush would be behind bars or under the prison.
Monday, November 02, 2009
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