Law

Woman Shot At Protest: Police Have Not Spoken To Her

September 15, 2014 KMOV.com, www.kmov.com Organize! Ferguson, Law, police brutality

FERGUSON, Mo. (KMOV.com) - A woman who was shot during the protests in Ferguson said police have still not contacted her. Mya Aaten-White said she was walking down West Florissant August 12 when she was shot in the head. Aaten-White said she was walking back to her car when the shooting occurred. Aaten-White said police have yet to speak to her about the incident. Her alma mater, Howard University, stepped in and appointed a lawyer, but the two were unable to schedule a meeting with police. "I have a strong distrust from them and they have not done what were supposed to do in my case," Aaten-White said.

The Michael Brown Murder Cover-Up

September 15, 2014 Paul Rosenberg, www.salon.com Educate! Ferguson, Law, police brutality

On Aug. 15, the world saw Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson belatedly release Darren Wilson’s name—and no other information at all about the killing of Michael Brown—while at the same time releasing a report (followed by a video) on an unrelated robbery that Brown was apparently involved in. On Aug. 20 and 21, first St. Louis County, then Ferguson released incident reports on the shootings—reports virtually devoid of any information. These highly questionable revelations stirred a fair amount of public outrage, but few people seemed to realize how truly sinister they were, or how they connected to much broader patterns of official lawlessness that have long bedeviled St. Louis County, and Missouri more generally, as well as many other jurisdictions across the land. On Sept. 5, TheBlot magazine reported that Chief Jackson had lied on Aug. 15, when he claimed that he released the robbery report and video because of numerous media requests. Public records released to TheBlot showed that no one had specifically asked for either of them, while many people had asked for information about the killing of Michael Brown, which Jackson refused to release at that time.

College Loans Forcing Seniors Into Poverty

September 13, 2014 Shahein Nasiripour, www.facebook.com Educate! Debt, Education, Law

The Education Department is demanding so much money from seniors with defaulted student loans that it's forcing tens of thousands of them into poverty, according to a government audit. At least 22,000 Americans aged 65 and older had a part of their Social Security benefits garnished last year to the point that their monthly benefits were below federal poverty thresholds, according to the Government Accountability Office. Education Department-initiated collections on defaulted federal student loans left at least another 83,000 Americans aged 64 and younger with poverty-level Social Security payments, GAO data show. Federal auditors cautioned that the number of Americans forced to accept poverty-level benefits because of past defaults on federal student loans are surely higher.

Can The Senate Oversee The CIA?

September 13, 2014 Ali Watkins, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! CIA, Law, Surveillance

WASHINGTON — Tensions between the CIA and its congressional overseers erupted anew this week when CIA Director John Brennan refused to tell lawmakers who authorized intrusions into computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to compile a damning report on the spy agency’s interrogation program. The confrontation, which took place during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, came as the sides continue to spar over the report’s public release, providing further proof of the unprecedented deterioration in relations between the CIA and Capitol Hill. After the meeting, several senators were so incensed at Brennan that they confirmed the row and all but accused the nation’s top spy of defying Congress. “I’m concerned there’s disrespect towards the Congress,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who also serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told McClatchy. “I think it’s arrogant, I think it’s unacceptable.”

All Charges Dropped Against MI CATS Tar Sands Protestors!

September 12, 2014 Jake McGraw, www.michigancats.org Resist! Arrest, Direct Action, Energy, Environment, Law

On July 24th in memory of the 2010 Tar Sands disaster in the Kalamazoo River, over 20 protesters gathered for an afternoon of speeches, music, and, resistance to the controversial Enbridge line 6B. During the protest Al Smith and Jake McGraw were wrongfully arrested on the Polly Ann Trail outside of a Precision Pipeline staging area in Oxford, adjacent to Lakeville Elementary School. They were taken into custody and charged with failure to obey a police command and mass picketing. This morning both charges were dismissed in Rochester Hills District Court. “It is a clear conflict of interest for a corporation such as Enbridge to contract local police forces as their private security guards. The dismissal of our charges is evidence of this conflict. We were acting within our first amendment rights to peacefully protest. We were wrongfully arrested in violation of our civil rights. I was assaulted by a security guard that day. Today, we were vindicated thanks to the commitment to justice by our National Lawyers’ Guild attorney Denise Heberle.” Jake McGraw, from Hartland Michigan.

Guatemalan Activists Defeat ‘Monsanto Law’

September 12, 2014 Weekly News Update on the Americas, www.weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com Resist! GMO, Guatemala, Law, Monsanto

Guatemala’s unicameral Congress voted 117-111 on Sept. 4 to repeal Decree 19-2014, the Law for Protection of Procurement of Plants, in response to a lawsuit and mass protests by campesinos and environmentalists. The law, which was to take full effect on Sept. 26, provided for granting patents of 25 years for new plants, including hybrid and genetically modified (GM) varieties; unauthorized use of the plants or seeds could result in one to four years in prison and a fine of $130 to $1,300. The law had already been weakened by the Court of Constitutionality; acting on an Aug. 25 legal challenge from the Guatemalan Union, Indigenous and Campesino Movement (MSICG), the court suspended the law’s Articles 46 and 55. The law was originally passed to comply with an intellectual property requirement in the 2004 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), and it was unclear whether Guatemala might now be excluded from the US-promoted trade bloc. Opponents labeled the legislation the “Monsanto Law,” after the Missouri-based multinational Monsanto Company, the world’s leading producer of GM seeds. Activists charged that the law opened the way to the introduction of GM plants, which might contaminate local crop varieties and disrupt traditional indigenous farming. Campesinos also felt they could lose their livelihoods due to competition from large-scale farmers who can afford higher-yielding seeds from multinationals.

Murder, Mass Incarceration, Militarization, Genocide

September 11, 2014 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and Kevin Berends, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Law, Police, Police the Police, Racial Justice

In these lawless and insufferable times we often find those charged with upholding the Constitution mouthing platitudes about the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, their brilliance in establishing checks and balances to ward off tyranny and their commitment to equal justice under the law. Yet while these same Constitution-quoters are bathed in pomp and applause at a podium, others in their charge or under their influence suffer force-feeding, "humanitarian bombings" and incursions—in short, abuses that the Founders would rightly have thrown off. And then some. The time's lawlessness owes to the chief executive and attorney general of the United States publicly acknowledging the commission of crimes—including torture—while giving their predecessors a free pass on their accountability. This is the leitmotif of justice in 21st century America. Witness the wars of aggression, the treasonous manufactured pretense that forced the public's consent for and the implementation of asymmetrical industrial warfare against civilian populations using internationally prohibited weapons. All of it, and no one held to account. Until Ferguson we might have thought the use of those tactics would never be visited upon Americans, on American soil, by other Americans. But this would require omitting certain other Americans: African-Americans and people of color. Black Americans might ask themselves: If we are to emulate our vaunted Founders, what will it take for us to declare for ourselves: But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Declaration of Independence, 1776

Enviro Groups Challenge Dominion Energy Over ALEC Connections

September 11, 2014 John Zangas, www.facebook.com Resist! ALEC, Energy, Environment, Law

Almost a hundred people rallied at the Arlington, Virginia headquarters of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on September 4 to protest Dominion Resources’ relationship with the shady group. By law, Dominion holds a monopoly for power production in Virginia. ALEC partners member corporations such as Dominion with state legislators to further a pro-business agenda by producing “model” bills. Elected officials who attend ALEC’s conferences (often on the taxpayer’s dime) frequently propose bills identical to the “model” ones drafted by ALEC. ALEC has gained negative attention recently for its role in creating Stand Your Ground and voter suppression laws and getting them passed in several states. Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, Greenpeace and other groups organized Thursday’s protest to call out Dominion’s business relationship with ALEC. The groups claim that ALEC plays a behind-the-scenes role to sabotage renewable energy goals. It has also lobbied to undermine EPA efforts to promote regulations designed to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired energy plants. “Here we are in Virginia where Dominion is the biggest carbon polluter and ALEC is headquartered,” said Joe Romm, who writes about global warming at Climate Progress. “What Dominion is doing through support of ALEC is immoral, and it’s time for them to stop,” he said.

Judge: Occupy Eugene Rights Were Violated

September 11, 2014 Helen Jung, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Law, Occupy

A federal judge in Eugene has found that a government agency infringed on protesters' First Amendment rights when it limited the hours Occupy Eugene activists could demonstrate in a plaza in downtown Eugene. In an opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said the General Services Administration's decision to allow Occupy Eugene to use the Federal Plaza only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Fridays led to a "chilling" of protesters' free-speech rights. The case stems from protests in 2012 in which Occupy Eugene sought to bring attention to its message of financial fairness, homelessness and demands for corporate accountability. The group had protested under a 60-day permit that allowed their presence in the plaza, which had public access hours of 6 a.m to 11 p.m. But as the group sought to renew its permit that July, the GSA alerted them to a new condition in which they could demonstrate only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday. The group objected and unsuccessfully challenged the time restriction, McShane noted. They were told that their permit extension had been denied. Despite lacking a permit, protesters continued to demonstrate at the plaza. Federal security officers ordered them to leave mid-afternoon or face arrest and ultimately arrested one woman, Florence Semple, at 7:30 p.m. That was well before the normal end of public-access hours, McShane noted.

Ferguson Changes Policies On Racially Unfair Tickets And Fines

September 10, 2014 Frances Robles, www.nytimes.com Organize! Ferguson, Law, Police, police brutality

FERGUSON, Mo. — In the first major sign of change in this small city since last month’s police killing of an unarmed black teenager, the Ferguson City Council said Monday that it would establish a citizen review board to provide guidance for the Police Department. It also announced sweeping changes to its court system, which had been criticized as unfairly targeting low-income blacks, who had become trapped in a cycle of unpaid tickets and arrest warrants. Municipal court fines are the city’s second-highest source of revenue, leading many critics to argue that the authorities had a financial incentive to issue tickets and then impose more fees on those who did not pay. Young black men in Ferguson and surrounding cities routinely find themselves passed from jail to jail as they are picked up on warrants for unpaid fines, one of the many simmering issues here that helped set off almost two weeks of civil unrest after the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, was killed by a white Ferguson officer on Aug. 9. On the eve of what was expected to be a tense City Council meeting on Tuesday, the first meeting since the shooting, the city instead pre-emptively announced many changes activists have long sought. Among other things, the Council was scheduled to vote on capping how much of the city’s revenue can come from fines. The city also announced a one-month window to quash pending warrants, a major victory for the activists and lawyers who had pressed for change and were expected to force the issue at Tuesday’s meeting.

7 Rules For Recording Police

September 10, 2014 Steve Silverman, www.thefreethoughtproject.com Strategize! Law, police brutality, Protest, Repression

Last week the City of Boston agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees to settle a civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. Prior to the settlement, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public.” The Boston Police Department now explicitly instructs its officers not to arrest citizens openly recording them in public. Slowly but surely the courts are recognizing that recording on-duty police is a protected First Amendment activity. But in the meantime, police around the country continue to intimidate and arrest citizens for doing just that. So if you’re an aspiring cop watcher you must be uniquely prepared to deal with hostile cops. If you choose to record the police you can reduce the risk of terrible legal consequences and video loss by understanding your state’s laws and carefully adhering to the following rules. Rule #1: Know the Law (Wherever You Are) Conceived at a time when pocket-sized recording devices were available only to James Bond types, most eavesdropping laws were originally intended to protect people against snoops, spies, and peeping Toms. Now with this technology in the hands of average citizens, police and prosecutors are abusing these outdated laws to punish citizens merely attempting to document on-duty police.

164 Year Old Land Deal With Ojibway In Contention

September 10, 2014 Tanya Talaga, www.thestar.com Resist! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Law

First Nations signatories of one of Canada’s founding treaties are set to start a landmark court action Tuesday against the federal and provincial governments on what they say is a failure to live up to terms of a deal made more than 150 years ago. Nearly two dozen First Nations fall under the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850, a vast territory encompassing 92,463 square kilometres in the middle of Ontario stretching from Sudbury to the shores of Lakes Superior and Huron and points north. In exchange for use of those lands by the crown, indigenous people were told they would be paid $2 a year with regular increases as profits from the land grew, said Mike Restoule, chairperson of the Robinson Huron Treaty Trust Fund. But there has been only one annuity increase of $2 in 1874 and nothing since, even though the area contains vast mining, forestry and land resources that corporations and the government have profited from for decades, said Restoule. Currently, the 24,000 to 30,000 descendants of the Ojibway Indians covered under the treaty receive $4 a year each. Failure to make regular annuity increases means the First Nations are seeking restitution and a clearer understanding of future payments. While a figure between $500 million and $1 billion is not out of the question concerning how much is owed, Roger Jones, a member of the Robinson Huron legal team, said they want a full accounting of profits made from the lands before arriving at a firm number.

California Trial Places Mortgage Blame On Bankers

September 10, 2014 Alexander Reed Kelly, www.truthdig.com Educate! California, Finance, Law, Real Estate

In an “unprecedented” trial that challenges the Obama administration’s official position on who was responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown, a Sacramento jury in late August thwarted a federal prosecutor’s effort to charge borrowers with mortgage fraud after the defense successfully argued that executives who signed off on the loans didn’t care whether answers given on mortgage applications were accurate. The Sacramento Bee reported last month: [F]our people charged with mortgage fraud were acquitted Friday [Aug. 22] by a jury in Sacramento federal court after defense attorneys argued the real culprits are the so-called “victim lenders.” According to experts, it is the first time in such a trial that a court has allowed the defense to present evidence that lenders ignored gaping holes and blatant lies in loan applications during the years leading up to the economic meltdown. In his column at Salon.com on Sunday, political economy writer and cultural satirist Thomas Frank explained that President Obama’s Justice Department has shown “virtually no interest in holding leading bankers accountable for what went on in the last decade,” letting their response to the fallout of the crisis be guided by the logic that banking executives “could not have committed fraud” because “you would expect fraud to result in riches” when “so many banks went out of business instead.” This is what the federal prosecutor argued in the Sacramento trial.

18-year-old Abused At Trial In Egypt

September 10, 2014 Joanna Kiernan, www.independent.ie Resist! Egypt, Human Rights, Law, militarism

An Irish student locked up in Egypt for more than a year has told how he was beaten up, spat on and dragged down the stairs of a courthouse by his jailers after his latest trial appearance ended in farce. Ibrahim Halawa (18) detailed the shocking abuse in handwritten letters he penned from his Cairo cell to well-wishers who have supported him since he was detained in August last year. Referring to his trial on August 12 last, which was dramatically abandoned mid-hearing, Ibrahim writes: "I didn't get to talk to my lawyer and the court cage was sound-proof (the one I didn't even enter) which is also illegal. We refused to leave until we get to see a judge as a result we were beaten up, dragged down the stairs, handcuffed in threes, we were spat on and all this just because we refused to leave until we were to see a judge." However, Ibrahim assured his supporters he is remaining positive in spite of his ordeal. "After what I went through I returned to the cell joking trying to lighten up the mood because of what I learned I cannot show my enemy I am weak, as they say, 'build a brick wall from the bricks thrown at you by your enemy'. This does not mean that I did not return feeling down and very depressed," he wrote.

DA Recognizes ‘Necessity Defense’ In Climate Protest

September 9, 2014 Ben Jervey, www.desmogblog.com Resist! Boston, Environment, Law, Protest

This morning, a District Attorney in Massachusetts made history as he recognized the “necessity defense” of climate-related civil disobedience, and reduced the charges for two activists charged in their Lobster Boat Blockade. Some quick background. Back in May 2013, Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara boarded their lobster boat, navigated to the shipping channel at the coal-fired Brayton Point Power Plant in southeastern Massachusetts, and dropped anchor. For six hours, the two climate activists and fishermen blocked the “Energy Enterprise” steam ship from delivering Appalachian coal from reaching the power plant. The “Henry David T,” Ward and O'Hara's boat, blockading the coal ship. Photo: LobsterBoatBlockade.org The two were arraigned later in the year on four charges in relation to their act of civil disobedience, including conspiracy. This morning, Ward and O’Hara were due in court, and their lawyers — along with a number of climate experts in Fall River to present testimony to the trial — had intended on using the “necessity defense” to argue that their actions were necessary to combat the greater threat of climate change. Ward and O'Hara had sought to become the first American climate activists to use this “necessity defense”, arguing that “the blockade was necessary in light of the imminent threat of climate change.” They had planned to call former NASA climatologist James Hansen and environmentalist Bill McKibben to the stand as expert witnesses. Scheduled for two days, the court proceedings were over in a less than an hour, as Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter immediately dropped the conspiracy charge, and reduced the other charges to civil infractions.

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