Criminal Justice

Oakland Activists Defy ‘Protest Curfew’

May 24, 2015 Davey D Cook, www.bayareaintifada.wordpress.com Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Criminal Justice, Freedom of Assembly

May 23, Oakland, CA - So tonight the Black women who organized the #SayHerName march in Oakland to bring attention to the scores of Black women being brutalized and terrorized by police were informed by OPD about a new PROTEST CURFEW.. Yes you read that right.. Oakland Police said there is a new protest curfew via Mayor Libby Shaaf According to Cat Brooks who heads up theAnti Police-Terror Project Oakland police stopped them and informed them there is new ordinance that mayor Libby Shaaf had put in place and that there will be no night time protests.. Marches were warned to get on the sidewalk or risk arrest if they continued their protests.. According to Cat, the marches were followed and warned via loud speaker…Brooks also noted that she was told by an insider off the record, this was the first stage of a crack down..

How The DEA Harasses Amtrak Passengers

May 24, 2015 Conor Friedersdorf, www.theatlantic.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Drug War, Human Rights, Police abuse

For decades, law enforcement has tried to intercept drug couriers on Amtrak trains. These efforts have utterly failed to stop the easy availability of marijuana, cocaine, and other narcotics. Meanwhile they’ve violated the rights of countless Americans. Earlier this week, I highlighted the story of Joseph Rivers, a 22-year old black man who left his hometown in hopes of becoming a music-video producer. En route to L.A., the DEA boarded his Amtrak and seized his life savings, $16,000 in cash, even though there was apparently no evidence he’d committed a crime or possessed any drugs. In a country in which police officers shoot and kill many more unarmed people than their analogues overseas, having the DEA hassle you and cost you $60 isn’t the biggest of law-enforcement abuses. It is, nevertheless, worth remembering that these sorts of incidents happen, because unlike misconduct that results in death or serious injury, relatively modest violations of rights like this often go unreported. Heuser didn’t complain to the DEA. “I’ve had my friends complain to the police before,” he explained, “and they basically said, you better watch yourself pal.”

Indigenous Woman Sues Multinational For Husband’s Murder

May 23, 2015 Jeff Abbott, www.truth-out.org Resist! Criminal Justice, Guatemala, Indigenous Women, Law

The indigenous Mayan communities of Guatemala have historically been given few judicial outlets, national or international, to seek justice for human rights violations at the hands of multinational companies operating in their territory. But Angelica Choc, a Mayan Q'eqchi' woman from the small hamlet of La Union in the department of Izabal on Guatemala's eastern coast, has looked to change that. In an unprecedented case, Choc has sued a parent company in its home country for human rights violations committed by its subsidiaries in Guatemala. "Those who have the money here have the voice," Choc told Truthout. "But I too have rights, and I am struggling for respect and dignity.... This demand is not only mine; it is for all of Guatemala, for all of those who have suffered from the invasions of our territories by foreign companies to extract our natural resources. This demand is historic."

Prosecutor: 6 Officers Indicted In Death Of Freddie Gray

May 23, 2015 Juliet Linderman, www.AP.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Freddie Gray, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

A grand jury indicted all six officers charged in the case of Freddie Gray, who died of injuries he suffered in police custody, allowing the state's attorney to press ahead with the most serious charges despite criticism that she was part of an "overzealous prosecution." The indictments announced Thursday were similar to the charges Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced nearly three weeks ago. The most serious charge for each officer, ranging from second-degree "depraved heart" murder to assault, stood, though some of the lesser alleged offenses had changed. Gray suffered a critical spinal injury April 12 after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him head-first into a van, Mosby has said. His pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored.

Kinder Morgan Paid PA Police Department To ‘Deter Protests’

May 22, 2015 Adam Federman, www.earthisland.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Environment, Law Enforcement, Oil & Gas

Between June and October 2013, Kinder Morgan, the largest energy infrastructure company in North America, paid a local Pennsylvania police department more than $50,000 to patrol a controversial pipeline upgrade. The company requested that the officers, though officially off-duty, be in uniform and marked cars. Kinder Morgan’s aim, according to documents obtained by Earth Island Journal, was to use law enforcement to “deter protests” in order to avoid “costly delays.” Kinder Morgan sought off-duty police officers to “deter protests" and avoid delay of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline upgrade. It’s unclear if the police department instructed its officers to explicitly “deter protests” but, if officers carried out Kinder Morgan’s request, their conduct would clearly violate the First Amendment rights of protesters.

Message From Plea Deal: Criminal Behavior Rampant On Wall St.

May 21, 2015 Robert Weissman, www.citizen.org Educate! Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Law, Wall Street

There are two messages in today’s plea deal: First, criminality is rampant on Wall Street. Second, the era of too-big-to-jail is alive and well. Even as they beat their chests announcing how tough they are, government regulators refuse to apply to the giant banks the same rules that apply to everyone else. The illegal acts to which the five banks have admitted wrongdoing weren’t accidents or technical violations. They were intentional violations of the law. They were conducted in concert with purported competitors. And they were hidden through use of code words. Many of the five banks are repeat lawbreakers, and the Department of Justice deserves credit for revisiting a prior non-prosecution agreement, and now prosecuting prior crimes at the giant company UBS.

Official: Palestinians To Prosecute Israel At ICC On June 25

May 21, 2015 Fars News, www.english.farsnews.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Israel, Law, Palestine

A senior diplomat announced on Wednesday that Palestinians are to submit two lawsuits against Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on June 25. Nabil Abu Zneid, the Palestinian ambassador in the Netherlands, told "Voice of Palestine" radio that the two suits are related to the Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the Israeli war waged on the Gaza Strip last summers, Xinhua reported. "Palestinian Foreign Minister Reyad el-Malki is to head a high-ranking Palestinian delegation that comprises rights groups, and will submit the two suits against Israel to the international court on June 25," said Abu Zneid. On April 1, the non-member observer state of Palestine became a member in the ICC and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Protest Over Decision Not To Prosecute Police In Vonderrit Myers Case

May 20, 2015 Joe Millitzer, www.fox2now.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, St. Louis, Vonderrit Myers

Protesters took to the to the streets of downtown St. Louis Tuesday morning over the Circuit Attorney’s decision not to charge an officer for the October shooting death of Vonderrit Myers. There were about 40 demonstrators near the intersection of 10th and Market. Police met with protesters on the scene. The Circuit Attorney’s officer released the results of their investigation into the shooting on Monday. Investigators found that Myers shot at the officer therefore deadly force was justified. Demonstrators have dispersed from the scene. The protest in front of the Courts building lasted for about two hours.

Newsletter – Overcome Fear With Love

May 16, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter BXE, Chile, Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Economic inequality, fast track, FERC, Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Greece, Homelessness, Human Rights, Inequality, Injustice, Living Wage, Obama, Police violence, Racism, TPP, United Kingdom (UK), Urban decay, Walmart, Water, World Economic Forum

Instead of taking action to prevent or mitigate the next crisis, politicians are causing more harm as they work hand in hand with the wealthy elites who are trying to grab even greater power and extract even greater riches. Maryland's governor was quick to bring in the National Guard and militarized police, but just cut Baltimore education funding by $11.6 million to fund pensions, while last week the state approved funding for a youth jail the people in Baltimore don't want. This article provides five key facts about Baltimore and a graphic that shows how the United States built its wealth on slavery, Jim Crow and racially-based economic injustice and kept African Americans from benefiting the economy. Also, as a special addition to recognize BB King, he sings "Why I Sing the Blues" describing the history of African Americans from slavery until today.

Transform Now Plowshares Anti-Nuke Protesters Released

May 16, 2015 Frank Munger, www.knoxnews.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Environment, Law, Nuclear Energy

Attorneys for Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed plan to seek the protesters’ immediate release from federal prison following last week’s appeals court ruling that overturned their conviction on sabotage charges for the July 28, 2012 break-in at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge. Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and a member of the legal team, said attorneys hope to free the three pending the government’s possible appeal of the ruling by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the resentencing hearing that’s tentatively scheduled for July 8 in Knoxville. Attorneys for the government and the defense participated in a teleconference Monday with U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar, who presided at the trial and sentencing two years ago, about possible dates for resentencing if the case proceeds in that direction.

TSA Sexual Abuse: Judicial Watch Gets Some Answers

May 14, 2015 Lisa Simeone, www.tsanewsblog.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, Security, Sexual Violence

Last August I wrote a post reporting that the non-profit civil liberties organization Judicial Watch was suing the TSA to gain access to documents outlining the sexual abuse of travelers at the hands of TSA workers. I said that Judicial Watch was joining a long line of of other organizations and individual people who had also tried to sue the TSA to get information, and that the TSA, predictably, had stonewalled. I will remind readers that we here at TSA News have been documenting such assaults since 2011, and I personally have been documenting them since 2009. My Master List of TSA Crimes and Abuses, both pages of it, contains thousands of accounts. And again I repeat, these are only the crimes we happen to find out about. Logic dictates that there are more, many more. It is impossible to know how many.

The Latest Tool For Creating Criminals In The War On Drugs

May 14, 2015 Derrick Broze, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Mass Incarceration, police brutality, Wars and Militarism

Since Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement in the United States has undergone a dangerous transformation from protecting and serving the American public to enforcing Orwellian laws under the guise of national security. American law enforcement agencies have become heavily militarized, and they’ve been granted previously unseen levels of authority when it comes to the use of confidential informants in pursuit of criminals. The militarization can be seen on television screens and social media feeds around the nation. Instances of police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri; New York; Ohio; Baltimore and countless other cities have made police militarization and violence a national conversation.

Killer Of Chilean Folk Singer Victor Jara To Face US Justice

May 14, 2015 Alfonso Serrano, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Art, Criminal Justice, Law, Music

More than four decades after Chilean folk singer Victor Jara was tortured and executed in Santiago’s Chile Stadium, in the wake of the military coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973, an army lieutenant accused of killing the musician will face a civil lawsuit in the United States. A U.S. district court in Florida agreed this week to hear the case against Pedro Barrientos Nuñez, the former lieutenant now residing in south Florida, who is alleged to have assassinated Jara, the poet and songwriter who became an iconic symbol of the struggle against Pinochet’s regime and one of Latin America’s most prominent protest singers. The U.S.-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jara’s wife and daughters, reacted with mixed emotions after the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida agreed to hear the case.

No Indictment In Madison Police Killing Of Tony Robinson

May 13, 2015 Zoe Sullivan and Oliver Laughland, www.theguardian.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Impunity, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

The white officer who shot dead biracial 19 year-old Tony Robinson in Madison,Wisconsin will not face criminal charges it was announced on Tuesday, more than 10 weeks since the teenager’s death. Following an inquiry by Wisconsin’s state division of criminal investigation [DCI], the Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to prosecute Madison police officer Matt Kenny, who responded to a number of 911 calls on6 March reporting Robinson was acting erratically and had allegedly assaulted at least one person in the street outside his shared apartment. At a packed press conference, Ozanne delivered a detailed description of Kenny’s fatal encounter with Robinson, drawing from the officer’s account and dashcam footage from Kenny’s patrol car.

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