Criminal Justice

Former US Attorney General Files Brief In Lawsuit Against Iraq War

June 10, 2015 Michael Eisenscher, www.uslaboragainstwar.org Resist! Criminal Justice, Iraq War, Law, Wars and Militarism

By Michael Eisenscher in US Labor Against War - An Iraqi single mother has assembled an international team of lawyers who are now asking the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit to hear her claim that the Iraq War was illegal under laws set down at the Nuremberg Trials, which govern when and how a country can go to war. Sundus Shaker Saleh, through her pro bono counsel Comar Law, filed papers last Wednesday, May 27, 2015 urging the Ninth Circuit to review facts and statements made by high-ranking Bush Administration officials—including former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—in the run-up to the Iraq War. On Tuesday, June 2, 2015, an international group of lawyers—including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark—filed an amicus brief in support of her claims.

Man Who Spent 3 Yrs In Rikers Island Jail W/o Trial Commits Suicide

June 9, 2015 Ben Mathis-Lilley, www.slate.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Death and dying, health, Mass Incarceration

In 2014, New Yorker writer Jen Gonnerman reported on the case of Kalief Browder, who was 16 when he was detained at New York City's Rikers Island jail on theft charges—and 19 when he was released three years later, in 2013, without ever having been tried for the crime. An April 2015 follow-up post included video of Browder, who spent a total of two years in solitary confinement during his "term," being beaten by a guard and by a group of inmates. On Sunday, Gonnerman reported that Browder, who had attempted suicide at least twice before, had killed himself. Staggeringly, Browder's experience—being jailed for a period of years at Rikers without trial—seems to be quite common.

Police Officer Indicted In Shooting Of Walter Scott In S. Carolina

June 8, 2015 Bruce Smith, www.AP.org Resist! Criminal Justice, killed by police, Racism, South Carolina

By Bruce Smith for Associated Press. It didn't take long for a grand jury in South Carolina to indict a white former city policeman for murder in the shooting death of a black man who tried to flee from a traffic stop. State investigators presented the case against former North Charleston officer Michael Slager to a Charleston County grand jury on Monday and prosecutor Scarlett Wilson announced the indictment a few hours later. A bystander's cellphone video shows Slager firing eight times as 50-year-old Walter Scott tried to run away on April 4. The killing enflamed a national debate about how black people are treated by white police officers. But it caused no unrest in North Charleston, where community leaders and Scott's family praised the government's swift response. Slager was charged with murder by state law enforcement agents and fired from the police force immediately after Scott's family released the video.

40+ Charged W/ Murder For Bangladesh Garment Factory Collapse

June 8, 2015 Beenish Ahmed, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Bangladesh, Criminal Justice, Law, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Beenish Ahmed in Think Progress - The owner of a collapsed garment factory building in Bangladesh that’s 2013 collapse killed more than 1,100 people has been charged with murder. Sohel Rana is among 42 people who face criminal charges for ignoring warnings not to allow workers into the Rana Plaza building the day before it collapsed. Government officials responsible for safety inspections were charged with murder alongside various factory stakeholders. They all face the death penalty if convicted. “It is the biggest industrial disaster in Bangladesh’s history,” lead investigator Bijoy Krishna Kar told AFP. “They [the factory owners] discussed and decided to keep the factory open,” Kar said. “They sent the workers to their deaths with cool heads.”

The Campaign To Free Chelsea Manning Continues

June 7, 2015 Charles Davis, www.fpif.org Resist! Chelsea Manning, Courts, Criminal Justice

By Charles Davis for Foreign Policy In Focus. In 2013, a military court sentenced Manning to 35 years behind bars for leaking that evidence, including thousands upon thousands of diplomatic cables, to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. The guilty verdict came after Manning was subjected to 11 months of what the UN special rapporteur on torture called “cruel and inhuman” solitary confinement. If she serves her full sentence, Manning, now 27, will be 60 years old when released, though she will reportedly become eligible for parole in 2020. But supporters want her out now — and believe that the way she was treated before she went to trial could be the key. “We have to appeal this on Chelsea’s behalf,” said criminal defense attorney Nancy Hollander, one of a team of lawyers looking to do just that. “We have to appeal this for all of our sake…And we really have to stop this because it is illegal for the government of the United States to classify info that embarrasses the government.” But justice is expensive. In 2014 alone, the Chelsea Manning Defense Fund spent $149,000 out of a total of $247,000 in donations on Manning’s legal team. As of March 31, 2015, that team was owed close to $100,000.

Calvert County Sheriffs Act As Dominion’s Private Police

June 6, 2015 Anne Meador, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Cove Point, Criminal Justice, Dominion, Police abuse

By Anne Meador in DCMediaGroup.us. Lusby, MD - The shoulders of Cove Point Road in Lusby, Maryland are looking pretty ragged these days. Recently, heavy trucks and construction vehicles have crumbled the pavement as they thunder down the narrow road. Not far up Cove Point Road from the main highway, just past the sometimes clogged intersection with H.G. Trueman Rd., they turn left and enter the gates of the LNG plant that’s been there for 40 years, but is now undergoing a major upgrade. The road also looks a little brownish from dirt spilled by dump trucks. Early in the morning on Sunday, May 31, there was no traffic to speak of when two cars with Pennsylvania license plates negotiated the gentle turns and hills of Cove Point Road. A police cruiser followed them.

Brelo Decision Presents Crucial Moment For Clevelanders

June 6, 2015 Austin C. McCoy, www.truth-out.org Resist! Cleveland, Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality

By Austin C. McCoy in Truthout - Many expected the city of Cleveland to erupt after watching Judge John O'Donnell pronounce Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo "not guilty" in the November 29, 2014, killing of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams with 137 gunshots. Seeking to prevent Cleveland from becoming the next city to explode, Mayor Frank Jackson released a public letter in late April assuring residents that he and the police were prepared to address any scenario. Several days before O'Donnell's May 23 decision from his Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court bench, The Washington Post published a story with a headline that asked, "Will Cleveland riot if a police officer is found not guilty?"

The US Gov’t Could Count Those Killed By Police

June 5, 2015 Rashad Robinson, www.theguardian.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Rashad Robinson in The Guardian - For centuries, black communities in America have faced physical abuse and unjustified deadly force at the hands of law enforcement. Modern policing even originated in slave patrols and night watches that captured people who tried to escape slavery. According to the most recent FBI data, local police kill black people at nearly the same rate as people lynched in the Jim Crow-era – at least two times a week. The Guardian’s latest count for the first five months of 2015 puts that number at around once per day. But the verifiable impact on black lives of racially discriminatory policing remains largely unknown. Despite federal law authorizing the US attorney general to collect nationwide data on police use of force, there remains no federal database on how often police kill civilians, let alone abuse their authority.

Freedom For Nestora Salgado

May 31, 2015 Free Nestora, popularresistance.org Resist! Ayotzinapa, Criminal Justice, Hunger Strike, Political Prisoner

By Free Nestora, The U.S. Campaign to Free Nestora Salgado is sending a delegation, including Salgado's daughter Grisel Rodriguez, to Mexico City on May 31 in an urgent effort to win Salgado’s release. She has spent nearly two years in prison, despite a Mexican federal judge's order to release her. The delegation will speak at a press conference on Monday, June 1, 12:00pm (Central Time) at the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh) in Mexico City. The families of other Mexican political prisoners will also be present. The delegation plans to visit the U.S. embassy to request a copy of Mexico’s notification to the U.S. that Salgado had been arrested. Requests for this information by the family have so far been unsuccessful.

The Banks Are Felons That The Government Refuses To Stop

May 29, 2015 Portie Crowe, www.businessinsider.com Educate! Banking, Criminal Justice, Finance and the Economy, Government, Law

This week, five Wall Street banks pleaded guilty to felony charges related to interest rate rigging and foreign exchange manipulation. The guilty pleas mean the banks are literally felons, and it's a distinct shift in the way law enforcement has dealt with Wall Street in the past. Lawsuits and legal fees are nothing new for the banks: since the financial crisis, they have essentially become the cost of doing business on Wall Street. Now, apparently, that cost includes both legal fees and criminal charges. The thing is, no one seems to be fazed. This case has nothing to do with the financial crisis. Rather, a couple years ago, traders from a handful of banks manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate, an important interest rate used around the world as a benchmark for mortgages and other loans. Other traders manipulated the prices at which banks bought or sold currencies.

Indigenous Leaders Demand France Stop Sale Of Sacred Artifacts

May 29, 2015 Associated Press, www.abc15.com Resist! Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Indigenous People

Hopi tribal leaders and Arizona's members of Congress are asking U.S. law enforcement to stop the sale of about a dozen sacred Hopi artifacts at a Paris auction house in June. The Hopi Tribe contends the auction house is illegally selling the spiritual objects, known as Katsina Friends, and is urging U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to help recover them. The items resemble masks and are used during religious ceremonies and dances to invoke ancestral spirits. They are communally owned, rarely displayed and never supposed to leave the reservation. This is the sixth time the French auction house, Estimations Ventes aux Encheres, has sold objects sacred to Native American tribes. It has argued that the items legally belong to collectors, and a Paris court has ruled that such sales are legal.

Cleveland And Justice Department Agree To Police Reforms

May 27, 2015 Corey Shaffer, www.cleveland.com Resist! Cleveland, Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Police the Police

Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled widespread reforms Tuesday meant to transform a police department that too often used excessive force and failed to conduct thorough internal investigations into a national model for big-city police. The 105-page settlement avoids a potential lawsuit by the Justice Department after its investigators concluded a nearly two-year investigation in December and found Cleveland police too often used excessive force, failed to thoroughly investigate itself and had suffered from an erosion of community trust. The agreement goes beyond correcting the Justice Department's complaints and includes extensive data collection meant to curtail racial profiling. The Justice Department and the city reached the agreement after five months of negotiations, with input from rank-and-file police, union officials and citizen groups.

The Real Experts In Criminal Justice Reform

May 26, 2015 Glenn E. Martin, www.nccdglobal.org Create! Criminal Justice, Law, Leadership, Mass Incarceration, Poverty, Social Change

I was first bound by handcuffs in 1995, and though I haven’t known their debilitating grip for years, the hypocrisy and destructiveness of our criminal justice system has remained with me ever since. When exiting the belly of the beast, my vision was crystal clear, even if my path was uncertain. Throughout my adolescence, strife was a familiar companion: poverty, crime, meager public support, and violence predictably culminated in a term of incarceration. After leaving prison, like the other 650,000 people who exit each year, I faced barriers to employment, enfranchisement, education, and equality, both mirroring and intensifying the challenges of my youth. I found opportunity in the advocacy world. There, I was valued for my professional skills, but also for the unique perspective that I brought to the work as someone directly impacted. I began to gain national attention as a staunch advocate for reform.

Protesters Clash With Oakland Police Over Curfew Crackdown

May 26, 2015 Jeffrey Schaub, www.sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, Oakland, police brutality, Wars and Militarism

Several people were detained during protests in Oakland Sunday night, following clashes with police out in force on orders that violence and vandalism would not be tolerated. Police said officers used force in two instances but did not describe the tactics officers used. About 100 protesters, including several clergy gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza upset that the city began implementing a law that requires that protest marches be permitted and that they be limited to sidewalks and take place before dark. The group then headed towards Oakland Police Department, but officers turned them back. Some of the marchers— and the police who followed— blocked a portion of Broadway. Many of the protesters left the scene at that point. Some of those who didn’t, got into a shouting match with police. According the the San Francisco Chronicle, police issued 19 citations and made four arrests in all.

‘This Is Straight Murder’: Protests Following Cleveland Acquittal

May 25, 2015 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Resist! Cleveland, Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

After a white police officer in Cleveland, Ohio was acquitted on Saturday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man and woman in 2012, protests against racism and police brutality spread throughout the city as activists called for justice. Police in riot gear arrested multiple protesters marching peacefully through the streets of Cleveland, where the shooting took place. Activists chanted, "No justice, no peace" outside of the courthouse where the officer was cleared of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault. The trial had been closely watched as a growing civil rights movement swept the country. The officer, Michael Brelo, and 10 other officers fired 137 shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams after a 20-minute car chase, with Brelo climbing onto the hood of Russell's car and delivering 15 shots at close range.

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