Law

20 Years Ago NYPD Officer Jailed For Chokehold, Why Not Now

February 3, 2015 Christopher Mathias, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! History, Law, NYPD, police brutality

The similarities are striking. Both Anthony Baez and Eric Garner, in their final moments, were put into chokeholds by officers from the New York City Police Department. Both of the cops involved were white, while Baez and Garner were minorities and unarmed. Both men’s deaths set off protests across the city, their names added to a long list of black and Latino men who have died in altercations with police. But Francis Livoti, the officer who killed Baez, ultimately spent seven years in a federal prison. In December, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s death. That grand jury decision precipitated several tense weeks in New York. Protesters -- organizing around the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter -- routinely took to the streets.

Holder’s Final Betrayal: Abandonment Of Decency

February 3, 2015 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Eric Holder, Law, police brutality

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder see nothing wrong with any of this. If they did, they are empowered to act. Yet the only things they have done proactively about the issues of police brutality and fraudulent grand juries are the establishment of a useless Task Force on 21st Century Policing, headed by – of all people – Charles Ramsey, who as Chief of Police in Washington, DC unleashed a police onslaught against unarmed civilian demonstrators who were practicing their constitutional right of peaceful assembly that cost the District millions in damages awarded in a class action suit. On top of that, they now toss us the cynical bone of hollow promises that they will add investigating the Ferguson police department to the mountain of investigations that they have already promised into the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and so on ad nauseam.

Family Of Ramarley Graham Settle Suit With City For $3.9M

February 2, 2015 John Marzulli, www.nydailynews.com Educate! Law, NYPD, police brutality

The family of slain Bronx teen Ramarley Graham agreed to accept $3.9 million from the city Friday to settle their wrongful death lawsuit, the Daily News has learned. The settlement comes amid an ongoing federal investigation by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara into possible civil rights violations against the NYPD cops involved in the Feb. 2, 2012 fatal shooting. Officer Richard Haste, who fired the fatal shot after chasing Graham, 18, from the street into his home, was initially indicted by the Bronx district attorney for manslaughter, but a judge threw out the case on a legal technicality. A second grand jury declined to indict the cop.

Asking What Kissinger Thinks– But Not What He Did

January 31, 2015 Peter Hart, www.fair.org Educate! Educate, History, Law, Wars and Militarism

Kissinger's tenure including support for the military coup that overthrew the Allende government in Chile and support for the murderous Indonesian dictator Suharto's policies in East Timor (FAIR Action Alert, 9/1/99). One could go on, and in much greater detail, but you see the point. Kissinger's record haunts him; every so often there are reports about how it interrupts his international travel plans, like in 2001 when a French magistrate sent Kissinger a summons at a Paris hotel, inquiring about Kissinger's role in the notorious Operation Condor programs of the 1970s. Kissinger promptly left town–and did a series of high-profile media interviews, none of which mentioned the French attempt to question him about human rights abuses (Extra!, 8/01).

Police Arrest African American Vet For Using Golf Club As Cane

January 31, 2015 Meg Wagner, www.nydailynews.com Educate! Law, police brutality, Seattle

A Seattle cop arrested a 70-year-old military veteran, claiming the golf club he used as a cane was a weapon — a move that prompted the arrestee to sue the city and force a review of its officer. Newly released dashcam video showed Officer Cynthia Whitlatch arrest retired bus driver William Wingate in downtown Seattle in July. Whitlatch, who is white, claimed Wingate, who is black, swung his club at her. The footage of the incident showed no such maneuver. Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole ordered a conduct review into Whitlatch after the July 9 arrest, where Wingate was charged with obstruction and unlawful use of a weapon.

Partial Victory In Penn., No Fracking In Public Lands

January 30, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! Fracking, Law, Pennsylvania, Politics

New Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order on Thursday reinstating a moratorium on new fracking leases in Pennsylvania's public parks and forests. The move is being heralded by residents as an important step but still short of the state-wide ban they say is needed. The development came just days after hundreds of people rallied at Wolf's inauguration, under the banner of the coalition Pennsylvanians Against Fracking, to demand a complete ban on the controversial drilling practice. Local grassroots networks, from the American Indian Movement in Lancaster County to Marcellus Outreach Butler in Butler County, have led the opposition against the industry's aggressive drilling expansion in the state, including the construction of nearly 8,000 wells in recent years.

Ecosystem Sues Over Fracking

January 30, 2015 Melissa Troutman, www.publicherald.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Law

For the first time in United States history, an ecosystem — a watershed, to be exact — has filed to defend itself in a lawsuit. The suit aims to reverse a local ban on the injection of fracking wastewater. Little Mahoning Watershed in Indiana County, Pennsylvania recently filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit to defend its own rights to exist and flourish. But watersheds can’t hire lawyers or speak, so how can one defend its rights, and do watersheds even have rights? The Little Mahoning Creek waterway flows through Grant Township, where elected officials unanimously passed a “Community Bill of Rights Ordinance” in June 2014 which declared “the rights of human and natural communities to water and a healthy environment,” including what’s commonly called the “Rights of Nature.”

‘Friendship Nine’ Cleared Of 1961 Civil Rights Sit-In Crimes

January 29, 2015 Colleen Jenkins, www.reuters.com Resist! Civil Rights, Law, Sit-In

Black civil rights protesters credited with reinvigorating the 1960s U.S. sit-in movement were absolved by a South Carolina court on Wednesday of the convictions lodged against them 54 years ago after they dared to sit at a segregated lunch counter. The men, known as the 'Friendship Nine' because most were students at the now-closed Friendship College, knew they would be arrested when they took seats at the popular McCrory's five-and-dime store lunch counter in Rock Hill on Jan. 31, 1961. Found guilty of trespassing, they became the country's first demonstrators to choose to serve jail time rather than pay a fine for sitting at an all-white lunch counter, launching the "jail, no bail" strategy later adopted by other activists.

Scotland Announces Moratorium On Fracking For Shale Gas

January 29, 2015 LibBrooks, www.theguardian.com Educate! Fracking, Law, Oil & Gas, Scotland

The Scottish government has announced a moratorium on all planning consents for unconventional oil and gas extraction, including fracking. Welcomed by campaigners as “a very big nail in the coffin for the unconventional gas and fracking industry in Scotland”, energy minister Fergus Ewing told the Scottish parliament on Wednesday afternoon that the moratorium would allow time for the government to launch a full public consultation on the controversial drilling technique, and to commission a full public health impact assessment. Westminster MPs on Monday defeated an attempt to impose a UK-wide moratorium but the coalition government had to accept several Labour proposals to tighten regulation of shale developments.

Marissa Alexander Released From Prison

January 28, 2015 Free Marissa Now, www.freemarissanow.org Educate! Law, Mass Incarceration, Racial Justice

“We are thrilled that Marissa will finally be reunited with her children, her family, and her community,” said Sumayya Coleman, co-lead of the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign. “Today’s hearing revealed that Marissa intends to attend school to become a paralegal and she is a wonderful mother to her children who urgently need her. Amazingly, the State continued their campaign of punishment by trying to add two more years of probation on top of the two years of house detention included in the plea. Fortunately, they failed. Marissa and her family will need time to begin recovering from this arduous and traumatic experience. It’s been a long and painful journey and, though her release from jail is definitely a win -- no 60 years -- the journey of seeking ultimate freedom is not over.

Sapotaweyak Cree Nation Sets Up Blockade

January 27, 2015 CBC News, www.cbc.ca Resist! Canada, First Nations, Land Rights, Law

Members of a western Manitoba aboriginal community are peacefully protesting work on the Bipole III hydroelectric line, a project that requires the construction of a transmission line, two new converter stations and two ground electrodes for those stations.Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 6.16.34 PM That construction will involve clear-cutting trees near Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, located north of Swan River in central Manitoba. Chief Nelson Genaille says the project will destroy their livelihood and way of life. "They use the land as they did before. Living off the land with the animals. You know using the medicines from natural Mother Earth. And even the water systems. All of that habitat is going to be impacted."

Marissa Alexander To Be Released From Jail

January 27, 2015 Maddie from AutoStraddle, www.autostraddle.com Organize! Florida, Law, Patriarchy, Racial Justice

In August 2010, Marissa Alexander fired a warning shot with a lawfully registered gun to keep her abusive and estranged husband from killing her in her home in Florida. No one was hurt, but Alexander was arrested and charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. After years of navigating the legal system and spending three years incarcerated, on Tuesday, January 27th, Alexander is expected to be released from the Duval County Jail. She will spend two years under house arrest while wearing an ankle monitor. Activists from around the country will converge on Jacksonville and in their home cities to stand in solidarity with Alexander and bring visibility to women who have been targeted for their resilience and survival.

Internet Countdown To Real Net Neutrality Begins Today

January 26, 2015 Rachel Colyer, www.dailykos.com Resist! FCC, Law, Net Neutrality

With exactly one month until a final vote on net neutrality at the FCC, net neutrality advocates are encouraging internet users, content creators, and major websites to join in the next phase of the campaign to save the internet—from the folks who brought about the Internet Slowdown in September, we now have the “Internet Countdown.” The Internet Countdown is a month-long push to remind the FCC that the upcoming vote on net neutrality is one of the most important votes the FCC will ever take. Further, we will be counting down the days and minutes until the vote happens with all eyes on the FCC.

7 States In Line To Legalize Marijuana

January 26, 2015 Phillip Smith, www.alternet.org Organize! Health Care, Law, Marijuana

During a series of YouTube interviews Thursday, President Obama demonstrated a remarkably laissez-faire attitude toward marijuana legalization experiments in the states. And he signaled strongly that the Obama administration wouldn't be taking to the hustings to try to beat back legalization efforts, as previous administrations had been wont to do. Indeed. Legalization bills are already popping up in state legislatures around the country, and while it's unlikely—though not impossible—that any of them will pass this year, 2016 looks to be the break-out year for freeing the weed. One state is going to be the first to legalize it through the legislature, and next year seems reasonable. And the presidential election year is also likely to see successful legalization initiatives in several more.

No DOJ Prosecution Of Wilson Means Struggle Continues

January 26, 2015 Syreeta McFadden, www.alternet.org Resist! Civil Rights, Law, Racial Justice

The purpose of leaks by “credible sources” is to manage expectations for the public. So the leak indicating that the Department of Justice will likely not pursue federal civil rights charges against Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown is likely a trial balloon to see how the public will react. I hope that one of those reactions is a demand for police reforms across the board, imposed not only from the top down but also from within. Justice – which we believe embodies accountability, blame, the restoration of equality, and a repair to some awful wrong between the aggrieved and the aggressor – loses its meaning in circumstances like this.

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