Letter To the Editor: Press Democrat  August 20, 2011

[Regarding Article "Santa Rosa Mayor Defends Kids Handling SWAT Weapons" Read below]

It is useless to try logic with people who have become so desensitized that they don't instinctively react with outrage at the idea of our local police using guns and tanks in an attempt to "reach the community" through its children via the "cool" factor as was just done in South Park.

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

TIME: 7:00PM

OSCAR GRANT COMMITTEE PRESENTS

A FORUM ON POLICE, RACISM,

BRUTALITY AND VIOLENCE

Davis's case has become an emblem for much of what is problematic about a capital punishment system that is riddled with racism, economic disparity and error.

June1, 2011 | “De’Jaun, come over here, I want to talk to you.”

De’Jaun Correia, a slender 13-year-old with thick corn-rows in his hair, sat down next to his uncle Troy Davis in the corner of the room. Troy described to De’Jaun what to expect now that he was approaching adolescence. “Your body’s gonna be changing…. Women, they go through things, and us guys, we go through things, too. The same thing happened to me when I was a young boy growing up.”

De’Jaun listened intently as his uncle explained the birds and the bees. It wasn’t the first time De’Jaun and Troy had had an intimate one on one. De’Jaun was more comfortable talking to his uncle, a sturdily built man with warm brown eyes, than anyone else.

Check out: 

Mary Neal koffietime twitter

Boycott for Justice (the 9th of EVERY Month-  No Shopping!)

freespeakblog.blogspot.com

The Wrongful Death of Larry Neal

marylovesjustice.blogspot.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

Controversy at Cochran Law Firm (NPR)

NAACP vs. Black Cigarette Smokers

Arizona taking immigration law to U.S. Supreme Court

Gov. Jan Brewer says Arizona is going directly to the Supreme Court to appeal a ruling by a U.S. 9th Circuit panel that the state's immigration law is unconstitutional.

 By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times  May 9, 2011

All of California now linked up to immigration enforcement network

By Matt O'Brien Contra Costa Times Posted: 02/25/2011

MARTINEZ -- The federal immigration agency has finally linked all California police agencies to reveal immigrants -- legal or not -- arrested for violating laws and subject to deportation.

The action, to be announced Friday morning in Southern California, enables U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to tag arrests and travel to all of the state's county jails to pick up immigrants accused of committing crimes.

In essence, local police, willingly or not, have become an arm of the federal immigration agency.

Acceptable Use of Torture in the US    June 23, 2009

The use of electric shock as a method of torture was first documented in Nazi, Germany, but today it is still used as an acceptable use of torture in the United States.

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, an un-edited police videotape shows 31-year-old Deacon Frederick Williams being struck with a TASER five times in 43 seconds, just 4 minutes after being led into the jail. He was handcuffed behind his back and in leg restraints, following an epileptic seizure at his home; an ambulance was called by his wife and son, but the police arrived first. His last words were: "Don't kill me, man. Don't kill me."
[click on title "VIDEO of Taser Torture Death of Deacon Frederick Williams After Epileptic Seizure Ambulance Call"to watch video]

Cops are far less likely than civilians to pay for their crimes. Seven recent incidents bring that point home.

January 3, 2011, AlterNetBy Nellie Nelson

On October 23, 2010, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 in the Bay area organized a Shut Down of the Ports and Rally in protest of the murder of Oscar Grant and in resistance to police violence, especially against youth of color, and the violence and pervasiveness of the Prison Industrial Complex.  Read below a Solidarity Statement from Japanese Railworkers. Below that is a strong VIDEO of the Press Conference About the Shut Down and Rally.

 According to the Arizona Daily Star more bodies of undocumented people were found in the summer of 2010 than have ever been recorded before.

The recent elections have put increasingly hateful legislation on the table that jeopardizes the lives of many people living in the United States.

No More Deaths needs you now more than ever to join us in our mission to end death and suffering.

If you would like to participate, please place a request as soon as possible. 

Spring Break 2011—Sign Up Now!

• Spring Break 2011 request form

Social Justice Activists & All Other Outraged People!

On Jan 1st two years ago, Oscar Grant was Murdered at the Fruitvale Bart Station by the BART police. The "Oscar Grant Committee To Stop Police Brutality and State Repression" will be joining with the Families of both Oscar Grant and Derrick Jones, as well as others, to commemorate their slain loved ones and Demand Justice and an END TO POLICE TERROR.

Make a New Years resolution to stand up to racism and unjustified police
shootings and brutality. Join us and make a difference!

Meet at Fruitvale BART station at 12:00pm NOON.

For more info, contact the Oscar Grant Foundation:  510.599.6357

Protest After OPD Kills Derrick Jones

Thu Nov 11 2010 (Updated 11/29/10)
Derrick Jones - Another Oakland Police Department Murder

Derrick Jones was shot and killed by the Oakland Police Dept on Monday November 8th 2010 on the 5800 block of Trask Street. On November 11th protesters took to the streets to protest the murder of another unarmed man by the police. Family members of Jones and Oscar Grant joined a demonstration at 5815 Bancroft Way (near 58th Ave.) before marching to the Fruitvale BART station, the site of Grant's fatal shooting. BART shut down the station for several hours during the evening commute because of the protest.

by Paul Boden Nov 18, 2010
Organizing Director, Western Regional Advocacy Project

This is the third article in a series we're writing on Quality of Life ordinances, our contemporary version of the vagrancy laws that have been with us for centuries. In the South, they were used to force freed slaves back to the plantation. In the North, they were used to instill a Protestant work ethic in indigent whites. This compulsion to control labor and separate the "worthy" from the "unworthy" is deeply ingrained in our culture and institutions.

MUMIA'S LIFE IS IN DANGER!

Come out on November 9th 2010 to say:

MUMIA IS INNOCENT !  FREE MUMIA! 
END THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY!

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL faces his likely last court hearing on November 9th, 2010, at the Third Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia.  This hearing is about sentencing only. 

Why is this happening?

Join us for a HEARING ON RACISM AND POLICE VIOLENCE
Oakland • February 2011

Come share Testimony and Demand Accountability on the Issues of Racist Law Enforcement and Police Suppression of Civil Liberties. Testimony will include witnesses to police killings across the country and experts on the impact of racial profiling and mass incarcerations.

THE HEARING (originally planned for January) HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH & 20TH 

Oakland High (1023 MacArthur near Park Blvd) Oakland, CA

SPONSORED BY:

• Mieklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
• Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
• New Years Movement
• East Side Arts Alliance
• Onyx• Collision Course Video
• African People’s Socialist Party
• National Lawyers Guild
• Hard Knock Radio
• US Human Rights Network

Oakland Filmmaker Feels Police Wrath

An Epidemic of Brutality

By LINN WASHINGTON, Jr.         NOV 5-7, 2010

Hours after San Francisco Bay Area radio show host J.R. Valrey screened his documentary film about police brutality at a university in Philadelphia daily newspapers in that city carried articles about two separate lawsuits filed against Philly police alleging brutality.

Those lawsuits, filed respectively by a state legislator and a high-profile media commentator (both of whom are black) didn’t surprise Valrey. His travels across America screening his film highlighted for him – again – a reality that governmental officials constantly reject: police brutality is a widespread scourge.

I think perhaps police uniforms should come with white hoods - Nikki Blak

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
www.freemumia.com
info@freemumia.com (212)330-8029

The only legal options to be considered at the Third Circuit's November 9 hearing are whether Mumia Abu-Jamal is to be executed or get life in prison without parole. Clearly neither of those two options is acceptable.

- An urgent message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal -

Please forward, post and distribute widely: * Oscar Grant & Mumia Abu-Jamal - Mass mobilizations*!

TWO RALLIES, SAME FIGHT! Against racism, injustice and official murder of the innocent! PLEASE SCROLL DOWN for full information

1. OAKLAND, October 23rd 2010: PORT SHUT DOWN FOR OSCAR GRANT!
Rally: 12 Noon, City Hall, 14th and Broadway

Humboldt County, on August 10, 2010, signed onto the Secure Communities Program [S-Comm] with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], an agency of the Department of Homeland Security.  The public had no say in the decision to adopt the invasive, unjust, and racist program for Humboldt County; the Board of Supervisors has not elicited public opinion about adopting this program, nor has it done anything to inform the public about it.

What is the "Secure Communities" Program?  If you are booked into jail, your fingerprints are taken and forwarded to ICE. The fingerprints are crosschecked with immigration and FBI databases. ICE evaluates each fingerprint scan to see what enforcement action, if any, will be taken against you. Enforcement actions can include arrest by ICE, transfer to ICE custody and/or initiation of removal proceedings (AKA deportation).

from Workers World

Nov. 9 in Philadelphia: ‘Free Mumia Abu-Jamal’

The nearly 29-year struggle to free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal faces a critical juncture with the announcement that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will review Abu-Jamal’s death sentence on Nov. 9. It is imperative that all who stand for justice and against racism and state repression pack the courtroom in Philadelphia.... 
Read more here: http://www.workers.org/2010/us/mumia_1007/

*Read Updated Message of Events Worldwide beginning November 5th!  Click HERE

http://bignoisefilms.org/films/tactical-media/114-justice-on-trial

JUSTICE ON TRIAL - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal from bignoisetactical on Vimeo.

Mehserle lawyer moves for new trial: What the defense is arguing

file photo, Johannes Mehserle

In California?  Flood the Attorney General phone with messages for Jerry Brown. 

Between 8am and 12 noon, and 1pm-4pm.
Phone: (916) 445-9555

Tell Jerry Brown that you don't want S-Comm in your area!! 

from the Center for Political Education:

Monday, Sept 20 2010    Contributed by:Frotchie    
On September 5th, 2010, Manuel Jamines was murdered by cops. LAPD Rampart Division police gunned him down, in broad daylight and in cold blood, at the corner of 6th and Union Ave in Pico-Union, a working class neighborhood in LA known for its Guatemalan and indigenous population. Manuel was a 37-year-old indigenous man from Guatemala working as a day laborer in the US. He didn’t speak English or even Spanish very well, and he had three small children in his home country. The pig who shot him, Frank Hernandez, was notorious in the community as a violent, racist, unpredictable hazard. Locals call him El Pelon, or “The Bald One.”