Disturbing Reversal of Civil Rights Case

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that White firefighters in New Haven had been discriminated against racially when the city decided to throw out an examination for career advancement once results came back that no Black firefighters had done well. The NYT reports that,

The new standards announced by the court will make it much harder for employers to discard the results of hiring and promotion tests once they are administered, even if they have a disproportionately negative impact on members of a given racial group

(For the full NYT article read here)

This is absurd - if you prove a test is racist you better damn well throw that out!! WHAT IS GOING ON!??! Racewire provides a far more complex analysis than I possibly can:

Sherrilyn Ifill at the Root says the majority opinion establishes a new, more stringent standard for evaluating the need for race-conscious policies in public sector employment decisions, and s to remedy discrimination in public sector employment, and in addition, the court “takes the extraordinary step of making the factual determination that there was not ‘a strong basis in evidence’ to justify the city of New Haven’s actions.” In other words, the majority is imposing its own definition of fairness over a local legal dispute:

What Justice Alito sees in New Haven’s actions is not the good faith effort of a city with a history of discrimination in firefighter hiring to address a stark and alarming racial disparity in exam results. Instead, Alito is certain that there’s something of a racial conspiracy afoot—a conspiracy by black community leaders to discriminate against whites.
On the connection between Ricci and Judge Sonia Sotomayor (who endorsed the appeals court ruling that the Supreme Court reversed) Glenn Greenwald sees "irony" in the rush to defend the whites from the supposed oppression of affirmative action policies, in contrast to the repudiation of Sonia Sotomayor's “empathy” toward far less privileged groups:

From the start, those protesting Sotomayor's decision in Ricci did so by appealing not to law, but to emotion, non-legal precepts of "fairness" and empathy -- at the very same time that those very same people mocked the notion that those considerations should play any role in judicial decision-making.

But, amid the heavy spin of conservative pundits, the case basically boils down to the value of a single test. So were the racially disparate results a product of a fundamentally flawed exam?

TAP's Adam Serwer challenges critics' accusations that the city fell prey to political correctness when it dismissed the test in light of its civil-rights law implications.

The city had reason to believe the test was flawed, not only because how it was constructed favored things less applicable to actual firefighting, it advantaged people with more resources and personal connection to the department, and there are other ways to construct the test in which not only have more relevance to the job, they actually have less of a disparate impact. If the city had arbitrarily tossed out the white firefighters' scores and promoted less qualified minority candidates, that would have been one thing. But they didn't do that, the threw out all of the results--blame should be put on the city for having created a flawed test in the first place, but it's not fair to say that the white firefighters were denied their jobs based on the kind of longstanding racial assumptions about black intelligence and diligence that still often govern hiring decisions. No one in the city believed that the white firefighters were incapable of doing their jobs correctly because they were white. …

Throwing out the tests was... the result of the city being careless in how it composed the test--unfair to those who studied for it, not just because promotions were denied, but because the test was flawed to begin with. There's no getting around the fact that Frank Ricci was wronged--but in my view, the city wronged everyone who took the test, period.
(For the full Racewire article read here)

This is so disturbing for the future - not just for public promotional exams but also for denying racial bias in other examinations. As a student, I am of course thinking about standardized entrance exams but .. my god. The implications of denying that a test is racist because it has particular results that favor a White majority is mind-boggling to me. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in her dissenting opinion, wrote:

"Congress endeavored to promote equal opportunity in fact, and not simply in form... The damage today’s decision does to that objective is untold."

A Letter from Jewish Voices for Peace

I had to post this - contact your government rep if you can!

Dear Elana,

We have just learned that a few hours ago, Israel illegally, in international waters, seized the 'Spirit of Humanity,' a boat carrying a cargo of humanitarian aid. The boat is being forcibly towed to an Israeli port.

Also seized with the boat are 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The boat holds medicine, toys, and other much needed humanitarian relief for the Palestinians living in Gaza under siege. Its cargo was searched and it received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before departure.

Call your Congressperson and your Senators today. Ask them to call the Israeli Embassy and to call the U.S. State Department demanding that the boat and its occupants be released, together with their humanitarian cargo, and that they be allowed to dock in Gaza.

Ask them what crime is being committed by giving the people in Gaza medicines, toys, and pencils?

Go to Jewishvoiceforpeace.org for more information

Solidarity with the People of Honduras

I can't pretend to understand the complexity of the situation in Honduras but I'm trying my best. My instinct is to support a more socialistic-oriented politician like Zelaya (actually, my instinct is not to trust any of the elite in Honduras, esp. not politicians) and I certainly can't feel pity for the interests of the powerful ruling elite who continue to exploit the nation's resources and people. The military in Honduras has a long record of oppression and torture, and also I have a lot of questions about U.S. involvement since Honduras' economy is so dependent on the United States. But at the same time... trying to end term limits is a road well-traveled and not too encouraging to me. Nonetheless, military coups are also very "been there done that" and never really harbingers of success. I don't know what will come next and I certainly don't know what will work!

All I know is that in these situations the working and poor people never fare well. I will keep the people of Honduras in my thoughts and prayers.

For the NYT report on the coup, read here.

Listening to Democracy Now's analysis is also helpful.

An Interesting Take on Protests in Iran

From MRZine. Access the original here. All information is welcome, I am struggling to understand the implications of what is going on there. My biggest concern has been, thus far, about human rights and civil rights -- but Pourzal offers a whole new perspective.

Iran's Business Elite, Too, Is a "Dissident"
by Rostam Pourzal

With mass rallies for government accountability dominating the news from Iran since June 12, Western audiences are missing the underlying controversy that polarizes the country's electorate. We hear much about the boastful social conservatism of president Ahmadinejad, whose contested re-election on June 12 fueled days of bloody protests led by his moderate challengers. But the battle is also about welfare reform and private property rights in an economy that has been state-dominated since the Islamic Republic was established thirty years ago. Whether Iran's national oil revenue should now be directed away from grassroots priorities emerged as a major election issue this year. All of Ahmadinejad's three challengers promised to promote investor-friendly policies if elected.

The opposition insists that Ahmadinejad unfairly buys voter loyalty with consumer subsidies, low interest loans, and similar "handouts." The president has especially enraged the managerial class with his wildly popular monthly rallies in the provinces, where he orders funding on the spot for the infrastructure needs of common folks. A special flashpoint is the pace of a long-anticipated privatization and deregulation drive that was officially launched a year ago but was not embraced by the Ahmadinejad administration.

Among the four approved hopefuls that ran for president recently, Ahmadinejad is the least enthusiastic about the neo-liberal reforms demanded by Iran's corporate interests. Several of his advisors and cabinet ministers and even a Central Bank's director general have stepped down or been dismissed after challenging the president's "unscientific" intervention in markets. At least one of them, former economic affairs minister Davood Danesh Jafari, campaigned for a rival candidate this spring.

Not surprisingly, Iran's business journals invariably promote Ahmadinejad's challengers. They regularly deride his welfare-state initiatives as "fiscal irresponsibility" and lash out in Cold War language at his close ties to left-leaning Latin American leaders. They demanMd that Iran align itself instead with the "international community" in order to benefit from globalization.

As they clamor for "meritocracy" and "performance" to overtake affirmative action programs, it is not uncommon for Iranian business columnists to quote the Washington-based Heritage Foundation -- of Ronald Reagan lineage -- which ranks Iran almost last among nations in its Index of Economic Freedom. In a similar vein, articles that lament how Ahmadinejad has brought back the "irresponsible anti-capitalist climate" of the early years of the Revolution appear in Iran's opposition literature about as often as conservative Western media condemn the 60s' "hippie generation" for permissiveness.

Ahmadinejad's leading ballot-box rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is allied with Iran's most influential "free market" advocate, former president Hashemi Rafsanjani. His was the face next to Mousavi's on the candidate's billboard advertisements this campaign season. Rafsanjani is best known for his "structural adjustment" program that met popular resentment and resistance from 1989 to1997. Since he was defeated by Ahmadinejad in the presidential elections of 2004, Rafsanjani has led a public crusade against the winner's zeal for social spending, which he characterizes as Gadaparvari, or dependency promotion.

The powerful state Expediency Council, which Rafsanjani heads, led a reinterpretation of Article 44 of Iran's constitution that last June mandated a downsizing of the government in favor of private investors and contractors. The sale of state-owned industries is advancing faster than ever, and the introduction of private banking was followed late last year by the opening of the first foreign bank branch. A comprehensive intellectual property protection law is finally in effect and legal restrictions on foreign investors are being relaxed in order to circumvent UN-imposed trade sanctions. Yet Rafsanjani's powerful allies complain bitterly in public that Ahmadinejad loyalists in the bureaucracy impede progress towards the competitive economy envisioned in the new law. This year Mousavi adopted Rafsanjani's 2004 campaign pledge to institute "an economic revolution" in which improved efficiency would result from deregulation.

Mohsen Rezaie, a former top military commander who dropped out of the race in 2004 and ran against Ahmadinejad again this year, is the Expediency's Council's secretary and a confidant of Rafsanjani. Rezaie's recent campaign boldly touted him as the "Architect of a New Economy" in which Ahmadinejad's two most cherished initiatives (which Rezaie ridiculed as "Komonisti") would be abandoned. Under one of the programs, named Sahaam-e Edaalat, millions of largely low-income households have received bundled shares of profitable state-owned industries at half-price. The cost of the discounted shares is deducted over time from the small investors' dividend incomes. Ahmadinejad boasts about this as his favorite kind of privatization. Ahmadinejad's year-old Maskan-e Mehr initiative, under which hundreds of thousands of first-time home buyers are offered 99-year leases on state-owned land and affordable loans to build modest apartments, was also targeted for termination by candidate Rezaie.

The other investors' delight among Ahmadinejad's rivals is former speaker of the parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who ran for president in 2004 and again this year. The center piece of Karroubi's economic platform this year consisted of suggested first steps towards de-nationalization of Iran's oil industry. The scheme was devised by the candidate's chief economic advisor, a self-described Milton Friedman devotee named Masoud Nili. It envisioned the formation of a non-government entity that would take control of all domestic refining and distribution of oil and make every citizen 18 years or older a shareholder. Karroubi's other top advisor, Abbas Abdi, a fervent promoter of trickle-down economics, often refers to the proposition as "empowering the people." They neglect to mention how, over time, better endowed Iranian (and eventually non-Iranian) investors could acquire large blocks of the proposed oil shares from low-income citizens and form Iranian equivalents of unaccountable Western oil giants.

Iran's state budget (including tens of billions of dollars annually for popular subsidies and services) relies far more on oil revenue than on taxation. Thus, to advocate removing oil from state control is, in the Iranian context, equivalent to the right-wing "citizen empowerment" protests this year in the US by tax day "tea party" tricksters. More generally, like the resentments that Ronald Reagan exploited and galvanized against the civil rights gains in this country, the backlash now energizing Iran's opposition candidates is in part a reaction to the attention the government showers on less fortunate Iranians.

In short, Iran's fiscal-conservative candidates are disputing the re-election of a social-conservative president. Which conservatism is worse? Should the Western progressive community side with the libertarian candidates? The answer may not be as straightforward as our mainstream media pretend it is. Instead of granting the opposition our unconditional support, we must demand that the movement shed its corporate bedfellows and isolate Ahmadinejad by championing the cause of underprivileged Iranians.

A Call for the End of Anti-Abortion Terror in Philadelphia

From PhillyIMC - access the original here

Anti-abortion Terrorism Can Be Prevented
by Cyril Mychalejko | 06.20.2009

The assassination of Dr. George Tiller last month by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder set off a fiery debate about the potential culpability of the anti-choice movement and whether this heinous act could have been prevented.

This is an uncomfortable conversation to have. It's a conversation that will offend some people. But it is one we must continue to have in order to ensure that we create the conditions that will inhibit similar violent acts from happening in the future.

In March 2005 the The Congressional Quarterly (CQ) published an article about how the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush refused to list right-wing domestic terrorist groups, such as the anti-abortion group Army of God, on a list of threats to our nation's security. Back in 1993 Army of God member Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon shot Dr. Tiller twice in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. The group's website currently has statements approving of the recent murder on its George Tiller "Baby Killer" link page.

“If for some reason the government no longer considers them a threat, I think they will regret that,” Mike German, a 16-year undercover agent for the FBI who spent most of his career infiltrating radical right-wing groups told CQ.

We now know that German's words were prophetic. Rather than using federal and state law enforcement agencies to spy on or infiltrate anti-war Quakers in Florida and anti-death penalty activists in Baltimore, President Bush should have committed his resources on domestic terrorists committed to violence - not pacifists. Hopefully Republicans and conservatives who didn't learn the lesson then, and who just a few months ago scoffed at and criticized the recent Homeland Security report "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," will finally face the facts and put the public's interests over narrow ideological ones.

Now one might accuse me of using an extremist organization or individual to tar an entire movement. But more "mainstream" anti-abortion advocates such as Fox's Bill O'Reilly, who repeatedly told viewers that Tiller is running a "death mill" and compared him to a Nazi, and former Senator Rick Santorum, who writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer accused President Obama of "infanticide" and of "justifying the killing of newborn babies," use the same imagery and demagoguery as The Army of God terrorists.

While reigning in irresponsible and incendiary hate speech is one step that the "Pro-Life" movement needs to take, and calling for and supporting the monitoring and investigation of right-wing terrorists and terrorist groups, the government needs to enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act.

Returning to ideologically driven policy, according to journalist Daphne Eviatar writing in The Washington Independent, "under the Bush administration, criminal enforcement of the federal law designed to protect abortion providers and clinics had declined by more than 75 percent over the last eight years."

Tiller's alleged killer, Scott Roeder, was actually videotaped vandalizing a clinic both a week and day before the murder. The FBI was informed, but Roeder was never picked up. This reveals an institutional bias that abortion providers face - something that effects local and national law enforcement agencies.

“Often local police won’t enforce the local laws against trespassing,” Cathleen Mahoney, the former federal prosecutor, told Eviatar. “It’s politically charged and local police want to stay out of it.”

I hope that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey will make our city the gold standard when it comes to enforcing the FACE Act. They should both read these words that President Bill Clinton spoke when he signed the FACE Act into law in 1994:

“No person seeking medical care, no physician providing that care should have to endure harassments or threats or obstruction or intimidation or even murder from vigilantes who take the law into their own hands because they think they know what the law ought to be.”

Immigration news

The NYT reports that a federal judge, Denny Chin, ruled that the "substandard and inhuman" conditions of immigration detention centers are a priority and Obama should address those conditions within 30 days.

Also, according to this Racewire article, the new mandate for a US passport when crossing US/Mexico and US/Canada borders is discriminatory against Mexican-Americans who are born outside of the hospital and therefore struggle to produce the many documents that serve as proof of US citizenship for those born outsie of hospitals:

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which went into effect June 1, requires Americans passing across the Canadian and Mexican borders to have a valid U.S. passport or passport card, instead of just a valid driver’s license, as previously required.

The new policy affects many communities in the Southwest for whom border crossing is a routine occurrence, and whose economic and cultural life stretches across the official divide imposed by governments. The travel requirements especially impact Mexican Americans born on the U.S. side of the border who face difficulties producing the documents needed to obtain a passport.

Civil libertarians filed a lawsuit last year charging that the passport process was unfair and discriminatory. Essentially, the procedures were biased against Mexican Americans born outside a hospital, with the help of a midwife, by requiring “an excessive number of documents normally not required to prove their citizenship.” The government recently settled the case, pledging to revise its application review procedures.

Commemorations

Before I start this post of just updates/interesting links, I want to ask anyone reading this to please hold the Iranian people and protesters in your thoughts and prayers. And I obviously must mention the passing of the King of Pop.

Also today is the 40th anniversary of Stonewall!! Democracy Now did a fantastic piece on it, the link is here.

In other interesting news, racial disparities in the treatment of Michigan and Maryland youth in schools and law enforcement are drawing national attention.

Also, the Supreme Court may be loosening the legal framework for equal education in the United States in the new Horne v Flores case. Racewire reports in more detail here.

Racewire also reported that NY Domestic Workers are organizing:

As the New York State Senate invested their considerable stock of legislative resources and wit into accomplishing such noble tasks as stealing gavels, sneaking into Capitol chambers, and going to tremendous lengths to achieve absolutely nothing during an emergency legislative session this past Tuesday, domestic workers convened at Washington Square Park to demand that legislators pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

Championed as a robust national precedent to reversing the nation’s racially-charged history of excluding domestic workers from labor rights laws, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights guarantees health care, severance pay, sick days, inclusion into the state’s collective bargaining and human rights laws, and other basic protections to New York’s domestic workers. The bill has been approved by the State Assembly but is stalled in the New York State Senate, where lawmakers are struggling to broker a power-sharing agreement in the wake of a Republican-staged coup.

Obama to ban workplace discrimination against federal trans workers!

The NYT reported yesterday that along with same-sex partner benefits for federal employees, his bill would protect trans federal employees against workplace discrimination. Read the full article here.

Judge Orders Release of Guantanamo Prisoner After Seven Years, Saying Government Position "Defies Common Sense"

Democracy Now reports that:

A federal judge has ordered the release of another prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, thirty-year-old Syrian national Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Janko. In the year 2000, Al Janko was tortured by al-Qaeda, who accused him of being a Western spy, and he was imprisoned by the Taliban for eighteen months. He was then captured by the United States in 2002 and spent the next seven years in Guantanamo. On Monday, District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected the government's position that Al Janko had once been a part of al-Qaeda, saying it "defies common sense." We speak with British journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/23/judge_orders_release_of_guantanamo_prisoner\

When our own officials are calling our bluff you know it's bad.

Open Letter asking Congress to Freeze Aid to Israel Until Israel Freezes Settlements

Forty national organizations and many state organizations sent an open letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs last week asking subcommittee members to freeze US Military Aid to Israel until Israel agrees to Obama's demand that they freeze all settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a precondition for peace talks. Obama's budget proposal includes $2.775 billion in military aid for Israel, an increase from last year's $2.5 billion.

I read about this on MRZine - the full article with more information can be accessed here.

I doubt anything will come of it but holding Israel accountable to US Foreign Policy goals would be unique and historic. I'll keep following this and update if anything new happens.

White Supremecists in the Army, Exploitation of Undocumented Immigrants, and Losses of Food Stamps to the Most Needy

Our country is struggles galore.

One of the scariest things I've read in a long time is this article on white supremecists in the US Army. People with tattoos of swastikas and other racist symbols are being encouraged to just "give an explanation" when they enlist. And, obviously, these groups are now having increased access to and recruitment success among psychologically vulnerable men and women in the US Armed Forces with expertise and training. One person in the article pointed out that this war is particularly conducive to recruitment for racist groups. "The military is attractive to white supremacists," Millard says, "because the war itself is racist."

The author of the article, Matt Kennard, tried posing as a potential Army recruit with racist tattoos, with interesting results:

In the spring, I telephoned at random five Army recruitment centers across the country. I said I was interested in joining up and mentioned that I had a pair of "SS bolts" tattooed on my arm. A 2000 military brochure stated that SS bolts were a tattoo image that should raise suspicions. But none of the recruiters reacted negatively, and when pressed directly about the tattoo, not one said it would be an outright problem. A recruiter in Houston was typical; he said he'd never heard of SS bolts and just encouraged me to come on in.

It's in the interest of recruiters to interpret recruiting standards loosely. If they fail to meet targets, based on the number of soldiers they enlist, they may have to attend a punitive counseling session, and it could hurt any chance for promotion. When, in 2005, the Army relaxed regulations on non-extremist tattoos, such as body art covering the hands, neck and face, this cut recruiters even more slack.

In other news, three men were arrested for posing as Christian pastors and promising hundreds of undocumented immigrants that they would get them green cards for a fee of anywhere between $6,000-$10,000 per person. Without reform to our incredibly flawed system of course already-vulnerable undocumented immigrants trying to make a living are going to continue to be exploited and taken advantage of by individuals eager to make a buck. I also think it is interesting that the NYTimes focuses on this case but makes no mention of comparable exploitation going on elsewhere every day, primarily by major corporations. (read the full article here)

Also, Obama's stimulus package cut food stamps for some of the most needy, the Huffington Post reported last week. They write,

Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers have seen a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. But the law did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit.

Laid-off workers and state officials are only now realizing the quirk, a consequence of pushing a $787 billion, 400-page bill through Congress and into law in three weeks.

.

What a mess.

Not speaking English and being an immigrant doesn't make you an unfit mother!

Speaking English a Requirement for Motherhood? Reunite Cirila Baltazar Cruz with her Baby
by Cindy Von Quednow
Original article (from Racewire) here)

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, in November 2008, Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to a baby girl. Soon after, her daughter was taken away from her because she could not communicate with the hospital attendants.

Far away from her native Oaxaca, Mexico, she did not understand the Puerto Rican interpreter assigned to her. Cirila speaks Chatino, an indigenous Mexican language spoken by about 50,000 people. A social worker called in by hospital authorities deemed the new mother negligent and unfit to raise the baby, stating as reasons that she was an “illegal immigrant” and that she did not speak English.

To date, no one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.

Baltazar Cruz is up for deportation, while her daughter is reported to be with an affluent Ocean Springs couple.

About 65 percent of Pascagoula’s 26,000 residents are white. Only 904 Pascagoulans are foreign born — about 20 of them from Latin America. Since most of the people that live in this tiny Gulf Coast town are isolated from the realities of immigrant life, it seems the authorities involved acted first and asked questions later. Now a woman has been separated from her child and can only wait to be sent back to her home country.

The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance has started a campaign to reunite mother and child by asking people to pressure Mississippi. officials. Get more information about Cirila Baltazar Cruz, along with the addresses and phone numbers of the authorities to contact, here, and help right a wrong.

Ever wondered what hell looks like?

Well, the US DOJ has the answer. (From this article in the NYT on why we shouldn't be afraid to close Guantanamo - there are plenty of draconian US prisons waiting for "most dangerous" criminals.)

Note the emphasis on CONTROL.

Beyond the gates is a 20-foot “no man’s land” between the administrative offices and the inmate housing units. A collapsible barbed wire fence runs along the outside of the strip. Razor wire swirls along the fence, which is rigged with sensors to detect attempted breaches. At night, the security strip is bathed in light and kept under constant surveillance by guards with rifles.

Beyond another set of airlock security doors is a long hallway separating the inmates’ living quarters and the dining hall from the dusty recreational fields and basketball courts at the center of the prison. The hall is interrupted by gates every several feet to control the prisoners’ movement.

“Our thing is control,” said Charles Ringwood, a prison spokesman. “The schedule is controlled. All movements are controlled. Everything has to be controlled.”

Standing above the prison yard, Guard Tower 7 forms the hub of the penitentiary. Wire fences slice the recreation yard into sections. Inmates in standard-issue khaki uniforms played a full-court basketball game in one section; in another, inmates walked in a circle. There were no free weights, which have been banned in most federal prisons.

Inmates live in six triangular housing pods arrayed around the prison yard, each holding about 250 prisoners. Inmates from different housing units rarely associate with one another. Each housing pod has two levels of cells around a common area. Inmates can use earphones to listen to televisions, which are affixed to a post. The area has payphones and a microwave for food bought at the commissary.

Inmates sleep in two-bunk cells. Random searches are conducted daily. Prisoners are counted five times each day — at 4 p.m., 10 p.m., midnight, 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Inmates deemed to be “high security risks,” including some international terrorists, must check in with prison staff members every two hours. Those who do not may be sent to the Special Handling Unit, a set of isolation cells where inmates have little or no contact with others.

The isolation cells were full, Mr. Norwood said, with 235 inmates there for reasons including violence and disobeying commands. Some are there to be protected from other prisoners. Prisoners generally stay in isolation cells for one to six months, Mr. Norwood said.

All the horrible things I read on the NYT today

All sorts of new fun laws for gun-lovers in Tennessee - now you can even carry guns in public parks! That's right, let's bring death to our playgrounds. One of my favorite parts:

The new Tennessee laws also include measures that will allow permit holders to carry guns in bars and restaurants, if they are not drinking alcohol, and to carry a loaded rifle or shotgun in their vehicles if the ammunition is in the magazine but not in the chamber, although it can be in the chamber for purposes of self-defense.

Read the full article here

A new ACLU report shows that anti-Muslim extremism in our country is actually preventing Muslims from fulfilling their spiritual duty of zakat. Discriminatory statutes have shut down nine Muslim charities to date, citing concerns that these charities were funding terrorism even without proof or due process. Read the full article here.

Sotomayer is being called discriminatory for being a part of an all-female networking club because there is no place for men in the Belizean Grove club. That is the biggest crock I've heard in a while. Meanwhile, no one is concerned that top executives of Victoria's Secret, a company that uses prison labor, or other major corporations are her co-grovers. Argh. Read full article here

Music and arts education is declining in the U.S. We're headed towards standardization and mediocratization - whooooooo. Read here.

Free the SF8 and RNC8 Events in Philly - July and August

CONSPIRING FOR CHANGE: the politics of protest in the post 9-11 world
A benefit for the RNC8 and the SF8

Friday July 10th at 6:30 p.m.
@ the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St.
$8 - $800,000 suggested donation, no one turned away

Join us for an evening of inspiration and resistance! The War on Terror has entangled long histories of state violence with new forms of repression. From yesterday’s COINTELPRO to today’s PATRIOT ACT, the government has attempted to criminalize U.S. political movements in the courts, in the media, and on the streets. This event brings together longtime activists locally and from around the country to discuss the use of conspiracy and terrorism charges against contemporary organizers, to connect legacies of social justice struggles, and to chart paths of opposition.

There will also be artwork by local Puerto Rican artists Danny Torres and Ismael Avila and the first Philadelphia showing of the exhibit Voices Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex, a portfolio created by artists in the Justseed’s Artist Cooperative.

THE PANELISTS
Ramona Africa
Ramona Africa is an international spokesperson for the MOVE organization, a revolutionary back-to-nature organization whose main belief is in life. This organization has experienced violent repression at the hands of the government, with nine members– known as the MOVE 9– incarcerated for a crime they did not commit. In 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a military-grade bomb on MOVE headquarters, killing six adults and five children. Ramona, the only adult survivor of that attack, was immediately arrested on charges including “conspiracy to riot,” and served seven years in prison.

Laura Whitehorn
Laura Whitehorn, an anti-imperialist activist, served nearly 15 years in prison for militant actions against U.S. policies during the 1980s. For many years before that, she was active in a variety of radical organizations, including the Weather Underground and the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. Released from prison in 1999, she lives in New York City with her partner, Susie Day. Whitehorn is an editor at POZ magazine, a national source of information and news about HIV, and works with other activists in the New York State Taskforce for the Release of Political Prisoners.

Luce Guillén-Givins
Luce began her political work at age 15, joining a Tucson-based immigrant and border rights group. Since then she has expanded her focus to include other issues of globalization, capitalism and empire, and found that anarchist organizing methods best suited her desire for anti-oppression struggle. In addition to organizing as part of the RNC Welcoming Committee, Luce has spent much of the past couple years working with EWOK! (Earth Warriors are OK!), a Twin Cities-based eco-prisoner support group.

Luis Sanabria
Luis Sanabria was a founding member of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican POW and Political Prisoners and a member of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional (MLN), which spearheaded the campaigns for freeing two generations of Puerto Rican political prisoners. He is a founding member of the Juan A. Corretjer Centers in San Francisco and in Philadelphia, and a board member of Philadelphia's Centro Pedro Claver, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Soffiyah Elijah
Soffiyah Elijah is a Clinical Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School. She has had a distinguished career as an attorney and was an assistant professor of law at the City University of New York. She has represented a number of political prisoners and activists in the U.S. including Kwame Turé, Marilyn Buck, and Sundiata Acoli. Dr. Elijah has done extensive research on the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems over the past 20 years. She is currently representing Francisco Torres in the San Francisco 8 case.

Francisco Torres (Invited)
Cisco was born in Puerto Rico and raised in this country. He is a Vietnam Veteran who fought for the grievances of Black and Latino soldiers upon his return to the states. A former Black Panther, he has been a community activist since his discharge from the military in 1969. His presence at the event depends on whether he will be able to travel during the preliminary hearings, which start in July.

THE CASES
The San Francisco 8 are the eight Black community activists – Black Panthers and others – who were arrested January 23, 2007, in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out thirty-five years ago after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. The original charges against them came out of COINTELPRO, and the reopening of the case was made possible by the PATRIOT act. After more than two years, preliminary hearings in the case begin in July 2009. For more info check out www.freethesf8.org

The RNC8 are the eight activists facing conspiracy and terrorism charges for their work organizing against the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They were arrested before the convention even began, and charged with “conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism,” making them the first people ever charged under Minnesota's version of the PATRIOT act. They are not being charged with actually doing anything, but face the possibility of several years in prison for publicly organizing against the RNC. For more info check out www.rnc8.org

This event is sponsored by Philly RNC8 Support Committee and the National Boricua Human Rights Network

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND

Day of Resistance, Patriotic Sing Out
With Elizam Escobar: theoretician, poet, painter, and former political prisoner (1980-1999)
And Joseramon “Che” Melendez: editor, anthropologist, writer, and renowned poet

7:30 p.m. * August 1, 2009
Iglesia Episcopal Cristo y San Ambrosio
3554 N. 6th Street at Venango Street

For more information call 215-667-5296 or 267-257-3626
Sponsored by the National Boricua Human Rights Network, Centro Musical, Iglesia Cristo y San Ambrosio, Centro Pedro Claver, the Mural Arts Program and Periodico Impacto

Info on Holocaust Museum Shooting

From the NYT. Complete article here. I'm having a hard time thinking about a resurgence of American anti-Semitism. The NYT (and many others) are connecting Johanna's murder with this shooting... I just wonder if this is really anti-Semitism that we should worry about or a few really sick people who never got the help they needed. I guess I'd be more worried if either of them had been working with a group rather than alone. I mean of course it is sad and horrible, but there is systemic murder and institutionalized violence going on every day - where is that in the news?

Anyway, details here:

A notebook that law enforcement officers discovered in Mr. von Brunn’s 2002 red Hyundai, which he had double-parked outside the museum’s 14th Street entrance on Wednesday, appeared to offer insight into his mind-set before the shooting.

“You want my weapons — this is how you’ll get them,” Mr. von Brunn wrote in a note he had signed, according to the arrest affidavit.

“The Holocaust is a lie,” the note read. “Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America’s money. Jews control the mass media.”

Mr. von Brunn’s note refers to himself in the third person by his initials, JVB, saying that he swore “to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

He lashes out at Jews and includes the name of his book, “Kill the Best Gentiles!”

The shooting was the third publicized anti-Semitic incident in the last five weeks. In early May, a Wesleyan University student of Jewish heritage was fatally shot on the Connecticut campus by a man who had written in his personal journal that he thought it was “O.K. to kill Jews.”

In mid-May, four men were arrested in the attempted bombing of two Bronx synagogues.

The F.B.I. said Mr. von Brunn — best known to law enforcement authorities for walking into the Federal Reserve System headquarters in Washington on Dec. 7, 1981, with a bag containing a revolver, a hunting knife and a sawed-off shotgun — was not under investigation at the time of Wednesday’s shooting. But the assistant F.B.I. director for the District of Columbia, Joseph Persichini Jr., said the bureau knew he had an “established Web site that expressed hatred of African-Americans and Jews.”

Mr. von Brunn’s actions were “not what this country stands for,” Mr. Persichini said, adding that it was important to send a message that the F.B.I. would stop “other Mr. von Brunns that are around here in this nation today.”

Mr. von Brunn, who lived in Lebanon, N.H., at the time of the Federal Reserve incident, told the police he wanted to take Fed board members hostage to focus attention on their responsibility for high interest rates and the nation’s economic difficulties.

Local and federal authorities in Washington said Thursday that they were focusing on Mr. von Brunn’s intentions and how he got the rifle. Because of his felony conviction in the crime at the Federal Reserve, he was prohibited by federal law from buying or possessing a gun. But Mr. von Brunn could have had the rifle, described by the authorities as “an older weapon,” since well before his conviction.

Mr. von Brunn brought a .22-caliber rifle and a .30-30 rifle when he moved into an apartment in Annapolis, Md., two years ago, according to the affidavit. The police recovered the .30-30 as well as ammunition for a .22 from his bedroom after the museum attack.

From Jewish Voices for Peace

Every so often someone comes along who is so brave and so inspiring that you just can't sit by and remain silent when you learn they need your help.

We're writing to you today about one of these rare people.

His name is Ezra Nawi.

You've probably never heard of him, but because you may know our names, now you will know his name.

Ezra Nawi is one of Israel's most courageous human rights activists and without your help, he will likely go to jail in less than 30 days.

His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region. These homes and the families who live in them have been under Israeli occupation for 42 years. They still live without electricity, running water and other basic services. They are continuously harassed by Jewish settlers and the military.

Nawi's friends have launched a campaign to generate tens of thousands of letters to Israeli embassies all over the world before he is due to be sentenced in July. They've asked for your help.


His name is Ezra Nawi

His name is Ezra Nawi.

We keep saying his name because we believe that the more people know him and know his name, the harder it will be for the Israeli military to send him quietly to jail.

And Ezra Nawi is anything but quiet.

He is a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent who speaks fluent Arabic.

He is a gay man in his fifties and a plumber by trade.

He has dedicated his life to helping those who are trampled on. He has stood by Jewish single mothers who pitched tents in front of the Knesset while struggling for a living wage, and by Palestinians threatened with expulsion from their homes.

He is loved by those with little power, to whom he dedicates his life, and hated by the Jewish settlers, military and police.

Now that you know Ezra, you have a chance to stand up for him, and for everything that he represents. Especially now, as Israel escalates its crackdown on human rights and pro-democracy activists.

He needs you. His friends need you. Those he helps every day need you. So please send a letter to the Consulate, to the media, to your family and friends.

Take just a moment to write your letter. Do it now. And then share his name with a friend. Do it for Ezra Nawi.


Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Neve Gordon

Continued Evidence of London Police Brutality

From the NYT. Find the full article here:

Six officers from the Metropolitan Police Service have been suspended or placed on restricted duty after being accused of mistreating suspects during a drug-related raid last November, the police said on Wednesday.

The police would not give details about what the officers, from Enfield, in north London, are alleged to have done. Using the term “waterboarding,” several British newspapers reported that the charges include dunking the suspects’ heads in buckets of water to try to extract information. If corroborated, that practice would be different from the torture technique known as waterboarding which has inspired criticism of the United States government for its use in antiterrorism investigations.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service said he could not comment on the reports.

The allegations were brought to the attention of the police by an unidentified employee of the department. They are being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which looks at police misconduct, and could result in criminal charges.

The police called the allegations serious and said they raised “real concern.”

This is particularly interesting given the rightward turn of British politics lately when the BNP (racist extremist anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-cooperation rightist group) won its first seats in Parliament. For more on that read here. I really don't understand what's going on in England, maybe the fact that the tube is shut down for a strike is making people nutso? Haha, just kidding, but it's worth keeping an eye on news in England.

Emergency Demonstrations in the United States of Protest and Solidarity with the Amazon Indigenous Peoples of Peru

Protest in front of the Consulate General of Peru in New York, NY
241 East 49th Street
between 2nd and 3rd Aves, Manhattan, NYC.

Wed, June 10
12:00 noon EST
The message is simple: stop genocide, stop violence, respect human rights, avoid useless casualties, promote dialogue and respect of Indigenous peoples rights in Peru, stop using U.S. free trade policies to destroy the lives of millions of peoples in Peru, promote democracy and equality.

Contact the government of Peru

Demand to cease the State of Emergency and martial laws that are a threat to other communities that are still protesting. Demand the end of violence against Indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Andean regions, to restore peace and to restart dialogue so that Indigenous peoples can keep their lands and the environment can be protected.

Send a Message to the President of Peru:
http://www.amazonwatch.org/peru-action-alert.php

President of the Council of Ministers of Peru, Yehude Simon Munaro
ysimon@pcm.gob.pe / Fax +51 1- 716- 87-35

President of the Congress of Peru, Javier Velásquez-Quesquén
jvelasquezq@congreso.gob.pe

Embassy of Peru in Washington, DC:
Telephone: (202) 833-9860 to 9869 Fax: (202) 659-8124
Ambassador Luis Valdivieso Montano
Emails: lvaldivieso@embassyofperu.us
mtalavera@embassyofperu.us

Consulate General of Peru in Los Angeles
Telephone: (213) 252-5910
Emails: jsanchez@embassyofperu.us
conperla@mpowercom.net

Public Ombudsman Office of Peru
centrodeatencionvirtual@defensoria.gob.pe

Peruvian Embassies in your country
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Peru

List of Peruvian Consulates in the U.S.:
http://www.consuladoperu.com/

Contact the U.S. government

Request for the Obama administration to take a stand in defense of human rights in Peru and for the government of Peru to stop using the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement FTA as a legal tool to attack the Indigenous communities.

Tell president Barack Obama, Congress members and State Secretary Hillary Clinton, that this is not the way to promote trade and progress, and that Peru must comply with the labor and environmental rights regulations included in the Peru FTA, which president Obama praised during his campaign.

Contact president Barack Obama and vicepresident Joe Biden:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Contact U.S. Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Contact U.S. House Representatives:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Contact the U.S. State Department
You can contact the U.S. Department of State in any of the following ways:

Main address:
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000
TTY:1-800-877-8339 (Federal Relay Service)

Public Communication Division:
PA/PL, Rm. 2206
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
202-647-6575

To e-mail the U.S. Department of State, please visit the following website:
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.

Contact the UN and OAS human rights organizations

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
indigenous@ohchr.org

UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
wgeid@ohchr.org

UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom expression
freedex@ohchr.org

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
indigenous_un@un.org

IACHR Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
cidhoea@oas.org

ACHR Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Expression
cidh-expresion@oas.org

Talking points

Few minutes of your time can make a huge difference!

Indigenous peoples rights must be respected by Peru, included in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007.

The right of consultations with Indigenous peoples is included at the ILO 169 Convention. This must be done with respect and honest intention of defending the rights of all Peruvian citizens and not only the interests of multinational corporations.

This massacre is a direct result of an abusive implementation of policies included in the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, by Peru’s president Alan Garcia who used it as an instrument of corporate corruption and collusion in the genocide of the Indigenous peoples.

The Peruvian government is presenting this tragedy as if it was caused by the Native peoples, which is not truth. Amazonian peoples protested without violence for almost 2 months, until the Police attacked them. All the casualties are unjustified and should have never happened.

The Peruvian media which is mostly biased and controlled by the government and corporate interests, is reporting that Police officers were kidnapped and massacred by the Indigenous peoples, but is not reporting about the abusive attack on civilians, and snipers and helicopters shooting at civilians including children. Witnesses have said that dead bodies were burned down and thrown to the rivers, and that police prevented civilians from rescuing injured protesters.

In the last 56 days, Amazonian Indigenous peoples of Peru are fighting to protect their territories, as the government of Lima has passed decrees that lease 73% of the Amazon forest and allow extractive industries corporations to take over their land, without previous consultation. The Amazonian peoples are requesting especifically for Lima to repeal those decrees.

Indigenous peoples do not oppose progress and private investment. They want to protect their land, their families and the environment, they want for corporations to respect their traditions and ways of living.

There have been years of protests since the signing of the Peru FTA by then presidents George W. Bush and Alejandro Toledo. Indigenous peoples have tried to dialogue, but the Lima government refused to listen and even prevented a national referendum in 2006.

As a way to protest and demand to be heard, the Amazon Indigenous peoples started popular strikes, oil facilities takeovers and road blockades in 8 regions of the country. This was replied by the Garcia administration by sending police and military forces to repress the protesters violently. People in Bagua responded burning down government buildings and lootings have also occurred.

Indigenous peoples value the land as a part of a our system of life, we don't own the land but we belong to it. There will not be a way for the government of Peru to impose its corporate benefiting laws because Indigenous people will defend their territories.

After the recent bloody attack, violence has slowed as today Sunday June 7. The military has taken over control of the region in conflict, but Lima has issued a warrant arrest for Alberto Pizango, the most prominent leader of the Amazon Indigenous peoples and his whereabouts are unknown at this moment.

Unfortunately, other leaders are also being prosecuted by the government and there is a possibility of future attacks of the military on other Indigenous communities. WE MUST ACT NOW!

Peru Emergency Fund

Please donate to Amazon Watch, a non profit that is working directly with the Indigenous peoples in strike. This fund will be used for medical relief for the wounded, media campaign led by indigenous organizations, and legal defense for those being charged.
http://www.amazonwatch.org/peru-protests.php

UPDATES: links to stay updated with the current situation in Peru:

[Eng] English [Esp] Spanish

Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana – AIDESEP is the leading Amazon Indigenous peoples rights organization in Peru. [Esp]
http://www.aidesep.org.pe

Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas - CAOI [Esp]
http://www3.minkandina.org/

Amazon Watch - a non profit working directly with Amazon peoples in strike: [Eng]
http://www.amazonwatch.org

Enlance Nacional – an independent internet news channel in Peru with correspondents in the Bagua region. [Esp]
http://enlacenacional.com/

Servindi - Indigenous news from Peru. [Esp]
http://www.servindi.org/

Facebook group "Solidarity with Peru / Solidaridad con Perú / Solidarité avec Pérou"
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89605273186&ref=ts

Q'orianka Kilcher On-Q Initiative:
http://www.takepart.com/blog/author/qoriankakilcher/

Mp3 Interview with Indigenous leader Tupac Enrique Acosta who just returned from Peru:
http://www.7genfund.org/current_actions/calls-to-action/special-peru-crisis-news-update-interview-with-tupac-enrique/

Peruanista - a bilingual blog about Peru, written in the U.S. with translations of news coming from the emergency regions. [Esp] [Eng]
http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2009/06/alert-massacre-in-peru-police-shoots-at.html

Freshman Senators Stand Against Modified NAFTA Expansion Politics of Pushing Trade Agreements Reflected in Peru Trade Vote of New Members. [Eng]
http://www.citizenstrade.org/pdf/CTC_Senate_Peru_4.pdf

Twenty one organizations of Immigrant rights advocates, unions, civil rights and faith-based organizations signed a letter to the US Congress opposing the US-Peru FTA and warning of threats to Indigenous peoples and the Amazon forest. [Eng]
http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2007/11/urgent-please-call-congress-to-stop-us.html

Trade Deal with Peru Fails to Measure Up for Development. [Eng]
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/archive2007/trade-deal-with-peru-fails-to-measure-up-for-development

Updates on Abya Yala North Indigenous Solidarity actions, contact Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh lahtokan Nahuacalli
www.tonatierra.org / email: chantlaca@tonatierra.org

June 29: National Trans Day of Action

The 5th Annual NYC Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice

POINTS OF UNITY

Initiated by TransJustice of the Audre Lorde Project, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Center for Community Organizing.

June 26, 2009


We call on Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) communities and our allies from many movements to join us for the 5th Annual Trans Day of Action (TDOA) for Social and Economic Justice. As TGNC People of Color (POC) we recognize the importance of working together alongside other movements to build the world we want to see. Much has changed since last year’s TDOA, the election of a new US President has brought hope to many of our communities, however we still live in a time when people of color, immigrants, youth, elders, rural communities, people living with disabilities and poor people are disproportionately underserved, face higher levels of discrimination, heightened surveillance and experience increased violence at the hands of the state. In fact, due to the growing financial crisis conditions have worsened. As a result, it is even more critical that we unite and work together towards ending the transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia and xenophobia within our movements for justice. We call for an end to the continued single issue platform of gay marriage over TGNC justice by our movements. Let’s come together to let the world know that TGNC justice will not be undermined and together we will not be silenced! These are the points of unity, which hold together the purpose of this march:

• We demand that all people receiving public assistance (welfare) including TGNC People of Color, be treated with respect and dignity. We are in solidarity with all people living on public assistance. TGNC POC face transphobic harassment and discrimination when applying for and seeking to access public assistance/welfare. For over three years TGNC communities in NYC have called on the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the NYC agency responsible for public assistance, to address these systemic problems. After initially ignoring requests for a meeting, due to community pressure raised by TDOA, last year HRA agreed to meet. As a result, this past year TransJustice and a committee of organizations and community members including the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Housing Works, Queers for Economic Justice, and others have worked with HRA to develop a new HRA procedure to prevent transphobic discrimination including TGNC cultural competency training. To date we are currently awaiting HRA’s final approval of the procedure and anticipate a response by Trans Day of Action.

• We demand an end to the profiling, discrimination, harassment, brutality and murders that occur at the hands of the Police. Communities of color continue to face rampant police harassment and brutality. Last month two lesbians of color were brutally beaten by police officers in front of a club in Brooklyn, NY. In 2006 a Transgender woman of color was assaulted and harassed by an employee at a McDonald’s, when the police arrived they arrested and abused her. We are in solidarity with all people impacted by police violence including supporters of Iman Morales, the family of Sean Bell and the Jersey 4. Like other oppressed communities, TGNC people are targeted, profiled and brutalized by the police daily. We demand an end to the brutality and harassment and call for Justice for all people impacted by police violence. We call for an independent prosecutor for all cases of police violence ( www.peoplesjustice.org ). To improve TGNC people’s safety in interactions with the police we demand that Commissioner Ray Kelly implement changes in NYPD policies and adopt the “Proposed Policy for the Treatment of Transgender People in NYPD Custody” and the associated changes to the NYPD patrol guide, submitted to the NYPD in April 2009. ( www.ipetitions.com/petition/NYPD...

• We demand an end to the violence and harassment faced by women and LGBTSTGNC communities in the NYC public transportation system (MTA). Women and LGBTSTGNC communities face rampant violence and harassment in the NYC public transportation system. In 2005, a woman was sexually assaulted in a subway station in full view of a train conductor and a station agent. In 2006, a transgender woman was harassed by an MTA worker using anti-transgender slurs - bystanders joined in the harassment. We call on the MTA to be accountable and work proactively to end the violence and harassment that occurs in their transit system and to comply with Local Law 3 which prohibits gender identity/expression discrimination. (nyersforsafetransit.wordpress.com & newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonar dlink/2008/02/brooklyn-court.html)

• We demand the full legalization of all immigrants. In the last year, violence towards immigrants has increased. We oppose all forms of enforcement, which target people trying to survive a deepening global economic crisis, and are in solidarity with migrant rights organizations around the world. We oppose any immigration reform proposal that includes a registration process, more militarization at the border and further criminalization of undocumented people. TGNC people deserve the right to access competent and respectful immigration services. We demand that the consulates of all countries respect and honor our identities and issue passports and other documentation that accurately reflects who we are.

• We are in solidarity with all prisoners, especially the many TGNC people behind the walls who are often invisible to our movements. We call attention to the under-reported accounts of severe violence and rape that our community faces at the hands of correction officers and other prisoners. We demand an end to the torture and discrimination TGNC prisoners face. We demand that all TGNC prisoners receive competent and respectful healthcare. We oppose the continued growth of the prison industrial complex that targets our communities, yet we recognize that TGNC people need access to services and facilities that lessen our vulnerability to violence within the present jails and prisons. We call attention to the criminal injustice system that increasingly puts POC, immigrants, TGNC and poor people behind bars - further criminalizing our communities and our lives.

• We demand that TGNC people have access to respectful and safe living spaces. Many TGNC people face discrimination from landlords and housing administrators displacing us from our homes due to gender identity or expression. A disproportionate number of TGNC people have been or are currently homeless and face discrimination when trying to access shelters and other assisted living programs. NYC law and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) state that people will be placed in shelters according to gender identity and that discrimination based on gender identity will not be tolerated. We demand that all DHS shelter administrators continue to provide adequate Trans sensitivity trainings for all personnel and enforce clear non-discrimination policies that respect all homeless people.

• We demand that TGNC people have equal access to employment and education opportunities. We are outraged by increasing unemployment facing all communities, particularly TGNC POC. TGNC people continue to face blatant discrimination and harassment from employers due to systemic transphobia. Few TGNC people have access to opportunities for learning in a safe school environment. We demand that employers and educational institutions implement non-discrimination policies and comply with Local Law 3.

• We demand that all people, including TGNC people, have access to essential health and human services. We are in a period of ongoing budget cuts to critical services such as HIV/AIDS, youth, LGBT, etc. We call on Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg to stop the budget cuts to essential health and human services and restore funding. The Piers have been a safe space for our community, particularly LGBTSTGNC youth of color for years. In solidarity with FIERCE, we demand the establishment of a 24hour LGBT youth center at the Piers. ( www.fiercenyc.org )

• We demand that children and youth under jurisdiction of the Administration of Children Services (ACS) and Private Foster Care Agencies, have the right to freedom of gender expression/identity. In 2002 it was established that NYC’s foster care system cannot discriminate against TGNC children and youth nor force them to only wear clothing associated with birth gender. ACS and private foster care agencies must be accountable for the health of people under their care including TGNC people. After organized community pressure ACS established an anti-discrimination policy for TGNC people. We demand that ACS fully implement this policy.

• We oppose all the public and hidden wars of the U.S. the continued occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the expansion of U.S. militarization. We are appalled by the ongoing attacks on the people of Palestine through the denial of equal rights inside Israel, division through the wall, economic isolation, blockades of supplies and imports, escalating militarization throughout the occupied territories, and the continued refusal of Palestinian refugees’ right of return. We support organizations intensifying efforts through boycott, divestment, and sanction strategies. We oppose escalating military activities everywhere. We demand the immediate removal of all U.S. troops from all countries under occupation and demand an end of use of U.S. dollars to cultivate and sponsor wars against people in the U.S. and abroad.

• We demand justice for the many TGNC people who have been beaten, assaulted, raped, and murdered. These incidents continue to be silenced, misclassified or blamed on TNGC people. The police and media continue to criminalize us even when we try to defend ourselves. An increase in hate crime laws will not solve the problem but will give increased power to the state to put more people in jail. Instead we call for a unified effort for all of us to address the root causes of why these incidents happen. As a society that seeks social justice we seek to find ways of preventing attacks on TGNC people by building strong and knowledgeable communities and using transformative justice to hold people accountable.

We commemorate Amanda Milan, Sakia Gunn, Ruby Ordeñana, Gwen Araujo, Erika Keels, Victoria Arellano, Lawrence King, Saneesha Stewart, Duanna Johnson, Angie Zapata, Teish Cannon, Taysia Elzy and the many others we have lost, who struggled and lived fearlessly, being true to who they were. They keep the fire of struggle burning within all of us.

On June 26, 2009, TGNC POC and allies will take to the streets of NYC once again and demand justice to let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over and we will continue fighting for justice, raising our voices until we are heard. We call on all activist and organizers for justice, both local and organizations around the country to endorse this call to action and to build contingents to march in solidarity together. To endorse TDOA 2009, send an email to endorsetdoa@alp.org , for more info contact - info4tdoa@alp.org or Mya at 718-596-0342 x 23.

The CMU - a new political prison

Thank you Jon Booth for sharing this!

Read the full article here on the Huffington Post:

As of May 2009, I have been at USP Marion's "Communication Management Unit," or CMU, for roughly nine months and now is a good time to address the misconceptions (and the silence) regarding this unit. I want to offer a snapshot of my day-to-day life here as well as some analysis of what the existence of CMUs in the federal prison system implies. It is my hope that this article will partially fill the void of information that exists concerning the CMU, will help dispel rumors, and will inspire you to support those of us on the inside fighting the existence of these isolation units -- in the courts and in the realm of public opinion.

It is best to start from the beginning -- or at least where my story and the CMU meet. My transfer here is no different from that of many of the men here who were living at Federal Correctional Institutions (normal prisons) prior to the genesis of the CMUs. On May 12, 2008, on my way back from a decent lunch, I was told to report to "R&D" (receiving and discharge). I was given two boxes and half an hour to pack up my meager possessions. After complying I was placed in the SHU (secure housing unit or "hole") and put on a bus the next day. There was no hearing and no information given to me or my attorneys -- only after a day was I told I was on my way to Marion, Illinois' CMU.

Hearing the term "CMU" made my knees buckle as it drummed up some memory I had of the infamous "control units" at Marion (closed in 1995 and replaced by Florence ADX: the lone Federal "Supermax" prison). Then it hit me. The lawyers, in challenging the application of the terrorist enhancement in my case, made the prescient argument that if I receive the enhancement, the Bureau of Prisons (BoP) would use that to place me in the CMU at FCI Terre Haute, Indiana (at the time just 5 months old). In fact, on the way to FCI Sandstone in August 2007, I not only saw the CMU but met one of its residents while in transit. Let me back up and offer a brief history of the Communication Management Units.

The CMU I reside in, at USP Marion, received its first prisoner in May 2008 and when I arrived, held about 17 men, the majority of whom were Muslim. Currently, the unit has 25, with a capacity of 52 cells. In April 2009, we received seven new people, all of whom were from the CMU at FCI Terre Haute. The unit is overwhelmingly Muslim with 18 men identifying as such. Most, but not all of the prison, have so-called terrorism cases. According to a BoP spokesperson, the unit "will not be limited to inmates convicted of terrorism-related cases through all of the prisoners fit that description." Others have prison disciplinary violation or allegations related to communication and the misuse of telephones etc. Here, almost everyone has a terrorism related case -- whether it is like my case (destruction of property characterized as "domestic terrorism") or conspiracy and "providing material aid" cases.

Before the Marion CMU opened, there was the original CMU, opened in December 2006 at the former death row at FCI Terre Haute. According to early articles, the unit was intended for "second tier terrorism inmates, most of them Arab Muslims and a less restrictive version of the Supermax in Florence, Colorado."

Additionally, BoP Director Harley Lappin, in a July 2008 hearing on the 2009 BoP budget request, said of the CMUs, "A lot of the more serious offenders, terrorists, were housed at ADX Florence. So, we are ramping up two communications management units that are less restrictive but will ensure that all mail and phone calls of the offenders are monitored on a daily basis."

Terre Haute's CMU has 36 men (27 of whom are Muslim) and is roughly comparable to Marion's CMU. The rest of this place focuses on the latter, in which I have resided and of which I have seen firsthand.

You may be curious about just what a CMU actually is. From my correspondence, I can tell that many correspondents do not know much about what goes on here. I hope this can clear up any misperceptions. According to the BoP,

The CMU is [sic] established to house inmates who, due to their current offense of conviction, offense conduct or other verified information, require increased monitoring of communication between inmates and persons in the community in order to protect the safety, security, and orderly operations of Bureau facilities and protect the public...The CMU is a self-contained general population housing unit.

There are, of course, alternate views to the above definition including the belief that the CMUs are Muslim units, a political prisoner unit (similar to the HSU operated by the BoP in the 80's, and a punishment unit.

...

Forward!

Where to from here, then? Does the new President and his Attorney General take issue with segregation? Will Obama view the CMU, as he did with Guantanamo Bay, as a horrible legacy of his predecessor and close it? Many people are hopeful for an outcome like that. On April 7th, 2009, Mr. Obama, while in Turkey, said, "The United States will not make war on Islam," and that he wanted to "extend the hand of friendship to the Muslim world." While that sounds wonderful, what does that look like in concrete terms? Will he actualize that opinion by closing the CMU? Or will he marry the policy of Bush and condone a secret illegal set of political units for Muslims and activists? What of the men here? Will he transfer us back to normal prisons and review the outrageous prosecutions of many of the CMU detainees? If it can be done with (former) Senator Ted Steven's case, it can be done here.

While lawsuits have been filed in both Illinois and Indiana federal courts, what is needed urgently is for these units to be dragged out into the open. I am asking for your help and advocacy in dealing with this injustice and the mindset that allows a CMU to exist. Please pursue the resource section at the end of this article and consider doing something. I apologize for the length of this piece -- it was suggested to me (by people way smarter than myself) that it would be best to start from the beginning and offer as many details as possible. I hope I gave you a clearer idea of what's going on here. Thank you for all your support and love -- your letters are a bright candle in a sea of darkness.

Juvenile Justive Hearing!

To my faithful readers,

Sorry for being so bad at blogging. I'll try to get back on my game.

From the Sentencing Project:
Legislative Hearing:
"Juvenile Justice Accountability
and Improvement Act"

On June 9, the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will convene a hearing at 2:30 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2141, to listen to testimony about sentences of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, submitted testimony to the Committee urging Congress to eliminate sentences of JLWOP in the states and the federal system.

"The Sentencing Project opposes sentences of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) because they declare that young people are beyond reform. All other nations have devised strategies to hold youth accountable, promote public safety, and prioritize rehabilitation to limit recidivism without resorting to this extreme punishment," states Mauer in his written testimony. "We support legislation that acknowledges the critical differences between youth and adults and imposes age-appropriate sentences that protect public safety and gives a second chance to young people."

To read more of his testimony, click here.

The following bill will be considered: H.R. 2289, the "Juvenile Justice and Accountability Improvement Act of 2009."

Witness List

Bryan Stevenson,
Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative

Mark Osler,
Former Prosecutor and Professor of Law, Baylor Law School

Linda White,
Victim, Texas

Anita Colon,
Sister of JLWOP Inmate, Pennsylvania