Law

Police Chief: Police Accountability Activists Terrorists

November 13, 2014 Moreh B.D.K. and Robert Medley, www.countercurrentnews.com Educate! Law, police brutality, Police the Police

It almost sounds too ridiculous to be true, but a recent tip given to Counter Current News by activists in Sandusky, Ohio has checked out. Police accountability activists in Sandusky have been hard at work shedding light on Erie County police officers who have a generally totalitarian approach to protesters. While Sandusky and Greater Cleveland Cop Block chapters have been hard at work exposing police injustices, brutality and abuses of power, a glimpse behind the scenes has revealed that Erie County Police Officers have been privately comparing “Cop Block” activists to ISIS terrorists. See one example we were able to verify and screen capture on the Police Facebook page in question…

Police Behaving Like Thieves: Take The TV, Car & Computers

November 12, 2014 Nicole Flatow, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Law, Police the Police

Cops have the authority to seize items they suspect are linked to a crime, most individuals can’t afford a lawyer to fight the forfeiture. And once the property is taken, it’s extremely rare that they ever get it back. While some asset forfeitures actually seize property for the purpose of, for example, depriving a drunk driver of a vehicle, that’s not always the case. And Oliver is the latest to recount the horror stories. A guy is driving cross-country with a lot of cash. Cops suspect he’s dealing drugs and don’t find any, but they keep the cash anyway. A man is busted for selling $20 of pot to an informant, and Philadelphia cops move to seize the home where his elderly parents live. In one case the defendant actually won after a years-long legal battle, federal officials moved to seize Russ Caswell’s family motel because they alleged some guests were dealing drugs from its rooms.

$3.4 Billion Bank Settlement; Will Anyone Go To Jail?

November 12, 2014 Kirstin Ridley and Joshua Franklin, www.reuters.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Law, Whistleblowers

Regulators fined five major banks $3.4 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, the first settlement in a year-long global investigation. UBS (UBSN.VX), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Citigroup (C.N), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and JP Morgan (JPM.N) all face penalties resulting from the probe that has also put the largely unregulated $5 trillion-a-day market on a tighter leash. One regulator gave banks a 30 percent discount for settling early. In the latest scandal to hit the financial services industry, dealers shared confidential information about client orders and coordinated trades to make money from a foreign exchange benchmark used by asset managers and corporate treasurers to value their holdings. Dozens of traders have been fired or suspended.

Parents And School Districts Sue Over Pennsylvania School Funding

November 12, 2014 Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, www.pilcop.com Organize! Education, Law, Pennsylvania

On November 10, 2014, we filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court on behalf of six school districts, seven parents, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) and the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference against legislative leaders, state education officials, and the Governor for failing to uphold the General Assembly’s constitutional obligation to provide a system of public education that gives all children in Pennsylvania the resources they need to meet state-imposed academic standards and thrive in today’s world. We are conducting this litigation in partnership with the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania and a national, private law firm.

Ferguson & Kenny Nero, Jr: The Front Lines Of Fighting Police Terror In DC

November 12, 2014 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Ferguson, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice, Washington DC

During the recent Black is Back Rally and Teach-In in Washington, D.C., I had the pleasure of interviewing Kenny Nero, one of the original organizers of the #DCFerguson movement. The group has organized marches with 300-700 participants that have shut down major economic thoroughfares in DC from Chinatown and H Street, to U Street and Georgetown. These demonstrations provided the impetus for DC Council member Tommy Wells to organize hearings on police brutality, harassment and terror in Washington DC. Kenny Nero, Jr. is a librarian at the Howard University Health Sciences Library and a community organizer by night. He worked on the DC Jail Library Coalition initiative to make a library in DC’s jail a reality. The initiative's successes include the mayor's allocating $300K for the library to support: a full time librarian, to be hired in October 2014; a part time library technician, and job readiness and digital literacy programs.

Detroit Activists Resist Bankruptcy Plan

November 12, 2014 Detroit Resisting Emergency Management, www.d-rem.org Organize! Detroit, Finance and the Economy, History, Law

Federal Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes’ approval of the Plan of Adjustment is not in the best interests of Detroiters. The plan, submitted by emergency manager Kevyn Orr, supported by Mayor Duggan and Gov. Snyder, protects banks, gives away public resources, and has no method to revitalize the city. We object! “We don’t live in a bankrupt city; we live in a city being attacked by bankrupt officials,” said Rev. Ed Rowe of Central United Methodist Church. From the very beginning this process has been a sham. The city was not bankrupt. Independent analysts demonstrated that the city suffered from a cash flow problem, caused by the cessation of promised state revenue sharing. The systematic withdrawal of state support, cutbacks to public services and schools, and massive layoffs in the public sector, combined with policies encouraging industry to move elsewhere, have created enormous pain for the people of Detroit.

Californians Vote To Weaken Mass Incarceration

November 11, 2014 Matt Ford, www.theatlantic.com Educate! California, Elections, Law, Mass Incarceration

California's Proposition 47 wasn't one of the most followed votes in Tuesday's midterm election, but it could change thousands of lives soon. Under the ballot initiative, dozens of nonviolent property and drug crimes will be reduced from felonies to misdemeanors, potentially freeing tens of thousands of prisoners. Funds that would have otherwise been spent on their incarceration will now be funneled into mental health and drug-treatment programs. The sentencing-reform measure passed in Tuesday's election with 58 percent of the vote. A large web of donors including California's Catholic bishops, tech-industry giants, and justice-reform groups contributed to its passage; prominent supporters of the measure ranged from Jay-Z to Newt Gingrich.

Albuquerque Agrees To Overhaul Troubled Police Force

November 11, 2014 Mark Berman, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Law, New Mexico, police brutality

Albuquerque has agreed to overhaul its police department, following a lengthy Justice Department investigation that found systemic problems involving reckless officers and excessive uses of force. For context, let us rewind seven months. Albuquerque was the site ofchaotic, frenzied protests and calmer protests in March over police-involved shootings. This outcry was sparked after police officers shot and killed two men that month, which pushed the number of people shot and killed by Albuquerque police to nearly two dozen over a period of a little more than four years, according to records kept by the Albuquerque Journal. Not long after these protests, the Justice Department released the results of a 17-month investigation into allegations that the Albuquerque police used excessive force.

Beyond ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’: What If There’s No Indictment In Ferguson?

November 11, 2014 Hannah Giorgis, www.theguardian.com Create! Ferguson, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

Black lives matter? It’s tough to keep saying something like that – to shout it in anything but protest – with this impending reality: At some point in the next few days, it’s likely that Darren Wilson will not be indicted, by the US justice department or the state of Missouri, for the extrajudicial killing of Michael Brown – an 18-year-old unarmed black man – in Ferguson, in broad daylight, three long months ago. It is at once horrific and predictable that a law enforcement officer may never have to answer for his crimes in criminal court, that his life will remained buttressed by the power of a blue wall as more black people are shot dead in America simply for existing, and by secret online donations from supporters with names like “Jim Crow” who applaud him for “taking out the trash”, like George Zimmerman and so many others before him.

90 Year Old Defies Police, Keeps Feeding Homeless

November 10, 2014 Alyssa Figueroa, www.alternet.org Resist! Homeless, Law

Arnold Abbott, 90, has been feeding homeless people in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for more than two decades. He has said that this is his life’s mission. He even started a culinary program that trains homeless people in hopes of getting them jobs at local kitchens. But on Oct. 21, the city of Fort Lauderdale made his generosity a crime when they passed an ordinance that placed strict restrictions on sharing food. Last weekend, Abbott was cited for breaking the new ordinance. He faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. "One of the police officers said, 'Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," Abbott told the Associated Press. But that’s not stopping Abbott. On Wednesday evening, he returned to the public beach where he cooks up food and was met with cheering crowd of nearly 100 homeless people and volunteers.

Bush’s Play Central Role In Suing Over Fracking Ban

November 8, 2014 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Energy, Environment, Fracking, Law

On November 4, Denton, Texas, became the first city in the state to ban the process of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) when 59 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of the initiative. It did so in the heart of the Barnett Shalebasin, where George Mitchell — the “father of fracking” — drilled the first sample wells for his company Mitchell Energy. As promised by the oil and gas industryand by Texas Railroad Commission commissioner David Porter, the vote was met with immediate legal backlash. Both theTexas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) filed lawsuits in Texas courts within roughly 12 hours of the vote taking place, the latest actions in the aggressive months-long campaign by the industry and theTexas state government to fend off the ban.

Maui Votes To Ban GMO Farming

November 7, 2014 Anitea Hofschneider, www.civilbeat.com Organize! Elections, GMOs, Hawaii, Law

A Maui County ballot initiative to temporarily ban genetically engineered crops narrowly passed Tuesday following one of the most heavily financed political campaigns in state history. The controversial measure pulled ahead late Tuesday, passing 50 percent to 48 percent — a difference of just 1,077 votes. It was a stunning turnaround after the measure was initially losing by 19 percent when the first results rolled in. The county’s first-ever ballot initiative targeting global agriculture companies Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences attracted nearly $8 million from opponents, making it the most expensive campaign in Hawaii’s history. Opponents outspent advocates more than 87 to 1, according to the latest campaign spending reports available Tuesday. That amounts to more than $300 for every “no” vote.

Despite Loss, Mark Udall Can Go Out With A Bang

November 7, 2014 Trevor Timm, www.theguardian.com Resist! Elections, Law, NSA, Senate

America’s rising civil liberties movement lost one of its strongest advocates in the US Congress on Tuesday night, as Colorado’s Mark Udall lost his Senate seat to Republican Cory Gardner. While the election was not a referendum on Udall’s support for civil liberties (Gardner expressed support for surveillance reform, and Udall spent most of his campaign almost solely concentrating on reproductive issues), the loss is undoubtedly a blow for privacy and transparency advocates, as Udall was one of the NSA and CIA’s most outspoken and consistent critics. Most importantly, he sat on the intelligence committee, the Senate’s sole oversight board of the clandestine agencies, where he was one of just a few dissenting members. But Udall’s loss doesn’t have to be all bad. The lame-duck transparency advocate now has a rare opportunity to truly show his principles in the final two months of his Senate career and finally expose, in great detail, the secret government wrongdoing he’s been criticizing for years. On his way out the door, Udall can use congressional immunity provided to him by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause to read the Senate’s still-classified 6,000-page CIA torture report into the Congressional record – on the floor, on TV, for the world to see.

ICC Criticized For Failure To Prosecute Israel

November 7, 2014 Center For Constitutional Rights, www.ccrjustice.org Educate! Blockade, Israel, Law, Palestine, Trade, Türkiye

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued the following response to the news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) would not be opening a full investigation into the 2010 Israeli attack on a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza. Israeli forces killed nine people, including 18-year-old U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan who was shot several times as he was filming the 4:00 a.m. raid and then shot in the face at point blank range as he lay there wounded. It is outrageous that the ICC is refusing to prosecute Israeli officials despite acknowledging that there's a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed.

6 Ways Americans Voted Against Corporate Power In Midterm Elections

November 7, 2014 Mary Hansen and Kayla Schultz, www.yesmagazine.org Organize! Citizens United, Elections, Environment, Fracking, Law

Deep breaths, everyone. The midterm election didn't exactly go how many people hoped. The Democrats' loss of the Senate could mean a Congress that's a lot friendlier to things like the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and theadoption of sweeping new trade deals. But don't despair just yet. In a few statewide ballot measures and local elections, Americans voted against corporate interests, embracing progressive policies (and even a couple progressive politicians). They endorsed protecting the environment from oil and gas companies, getting corporate money (like the record $3.76 billion spent during this midterm election) out of politics, and favoring local businesses over chain stores. Here are six local victories that got us excited.

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