• 29Jun

  US - North Carolina: Police & City Councilman Harass And Slander Latin Kings

  Gangs, Peace Efforts, Police Brutality No Comments

  Police & City Councilman Harass And Slander Latin Kings

  

  King J (in white shirt) and fellow members of the Latin Kings.

   

   

  We have been following the peace process that was initiated by King J AKA Jorge Cornell and the North Carolina Latin Kings since the beginning, through all of its trials (literally many trials) and tribulations.

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  We at Malcolm-Che have payed a lot of attention to this process because we feel it is one of the most important developments in the streets in all of America.  It is not every day that a member of a street organization initiates a peace process between street organizations, but more than that this process has endured many attempts by the establishment to shut it down and has even branched out into important activist fields like pro-immigration  and anti-racism work.

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  We knew King J was serious about peace when he reiterated his commitment to the peace process even after being shot.  So it is with a great deal of solidarity that we report these two most recent developments:

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  Greensboro councilman embroiled in conflict with gang

  http://www.yesweekly.com/article-6523-news.html

  Old wounds transfer into new grievances, while new controversies supplant old ones along familiar battle lines in Greensboro.

  The 1979 Klan-Nazi killings and the black police officers’ discrimination claims against the city have steamrolled into a new conflict between District 4 Councilman Mike Barber and the street organization known as the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, or the Latin Kings.

  Barber had ended up on the losing side of a vote to issue a statement of regret about the Klan-Nazi killings at a recent Greensboro City Council meeting on June 16, and one of those speaking in favor of the motion was the Rev. Cardes Brown. The pastor had recently hosted a press conference for Officer AJ Blake, one of the plaintiffs in the discrimination lawsuit and a former member of the gang unit assigned to investigate the Latin Kings. Blake is currently suspended while he appeals two convictions for assault on a female. The Rev. Brown has alleged that Barber offered to help Blake get his criminal charges dropped in exchange for withdrawing from the discrimination suit. It was not quite midnight near the end of the council meeting when Barber made public remarks about a house on Keeler Street behind Sedgefield Elementary where neighbors have reportedly complained about gunfire. The house lies in District 5, which is represented by Barber’s colleague, Councilwoman Trudy Wade. “There is an 18-year-old and a 21-yearold that lives in this home, and they are members of the gang the Latin Kings,” Barber said, reading from notes. “They have discharged a firearm in the neighborhood.

   

  They have been investigated by the sheriff’s department — the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department — for internet prostitution, pornography and have committed other bad behavior in the community.”

  For good measure, Barber added, “This is the same organization, I’ll just mention, that Cardes Brown is defending currently.”

  He continued, “We’ve got our three 18carat gold ministers that are calling press conferences to defend these wonderful citizens of our community that are discharging weapons around children.”

  Jorge Cornell, leader of the Latin Kings in North Carolina, responded that he kicked out four Latin Kings who are currently residents at 2809 Keeler St. in late April for doing things “that were not fitting for a king or queen.” As to whether his organization was

   

  involved in prostitution and pornography, Cornell said, “None whatsoever; that’s not even our style.”

  Col. Randy Powers, the Guilford County’s Sheriff’s Office’s second in command, contradicted Barber’s statement. “Apparently he must be talking about some other sheriff’s office. It wasn’t ours. I don’t think we’ve got anything going, and we’ve checked pretty deep.” Barber did not return phone calls requesting clarification about the source of his allegations.
  

   

  Cornell said the neighbors’ complaints about firearms being discharged at the address might be related to shots fired at the house rather than from it. The Latin King leader, who now lives on Kirkman Street, said he had been shot at twice at the Keeler Street house before he moved in February 2008. Greensboro police have made one service call to 2809 Kirkman St. in the past six months. At 2:39 a.m. on June 8, Guilford Metro 911 received a call from a woman saying four or five shots had been fired and her daughter, 21-year-old Ashley Lazo, had received a gunshot wound. The dispatcher summarized the mother’s comments as “This happened now…. The assailant is gone: drive-by shooting. There is serious bleeding.” A police press release later reported that Lazo “sustained nonlife-threatening injuries from the shots fired into the residence.”

  The Rev. Johnson, Jorge Cornell and other members of the Latin Kings held a press conference at Faith Community Church on June 18, two days after the councilman’s comments, to decry what they describe as a pattern of harassment by the gang unit and to call on the city council and the police department to dismantle that unit. “I feel the chief is weak,” said Cornell.

  “I feel he has no power over any member of his police department. I challenge any city council member to prove that the Latin Kings have any involvement in internet prostitution or internet pornography. We’re not about that. And I challenge any member of the city council to prove to me that I got any member of the ALKQN living on Keeler Street.”
  

   

  Johnson said he was saddened by the contentious nature of the current council, and asked Barber to consider meeting with them. “If there’s a view that there is violence going on and that we as a group of ministers
  

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  Latin Kings claim harassment, police deny

  http://www.carolinapeacemaker.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=97300&sID=4

   

  The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation of Greensboro is accusing the Greensboro Police Department Gang Squad of harassment and calling for the squad to be dismantled. “If we have peace, then there’s no need for a gang unit. They’ve done everything they could to slander our name,” said ALKQN leader Jorge Cornell, also known as King J, during a press conference held last week at the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro.
  In June 2008, ALKQN proposed and signed an agreement to promote peace and unity among the area’s street gangs. However, during the past year, the members of the ALKQN stated that they have been wrongly jailed numerous times, kept under constant surveillance and harassed at their homes and jobs by the gang unit. Greensboro’s gang unit has been formally in operation since September 2008.
  Assistant Chief of Police Dwight Crotts said that the gang unit is not targeting the ALKQN and that they have received numerous calls requesting service at a residence where the group frequents. “I have not seen or heard what is being alleged by the group, but the only thing I can say is that there is not a targeting. The gang unit deals with many criminals and many street gangs,” he added, “The next important factor is helping people who want to get out of gangs.”
  Cornell stated at the press conference, “They (gang unit) have been attempting to destroy the peace process which I announced back in June of 2008…The gang unit has also attacked us personally.” Cornell believes there are many racist attitudes within the gang unit.
  In response to the gang unit trying to stop the peace and unity work which ALKQN is trying to accomplish, Crotts says, “That’s ludicrous. I think the opposite would be true. The gang unit has been very effective to date and the difference between the Latin Kings and other street gangs is that the Latin Kings try to draw attention to themselves, whereas others do not.”
  During the press conference, Cornell recounted an incident in June 2008, in which he was informed there was a warrant out for his arrest, however after going to the police station to turn himself in, no arrest warrant could be found on file. Days later, there was a warrant issued for Cornell’s arrest. He was charged with knowingly allowing a minor (16-year-old) drive his car without a license. According to Cornell, ALKQN has been charged more than 80 times by the police department, yet none of the charges were upheld in court.
  Reverend Nelson Johnson of Beloved Community Center said, “If there are over 20 felony charges on one person, and none of them are upheld in court, then on what basis are these charges made? The main question is ‘what do we need a gang squad for?”’ Johnson is one person that has been very supportive of the gang’s peace attempts and believes it is in the community’s hands to stop the gang unit from abusing their power. “I think we need discussions all over town to get to the bottom of this.”
  Reverend Gregory Headen, president of the Pulpit Forum of Clergy of Greensboro added, “So much of the power rests with the people. This is not just the Latin Kings’ problem; this is all of our problem. It’s going to take the whole community to say this is not acceptable.”
  Press conference holders also stated their displeasure at remarks made by Greensboro City Councilman Mike Barber to the public, accusing the ALKQN members of internet prostitution, pornography and discharging firearms in the neighborhood. “I challenge any council member to find any of my members involved with those things,” said Cornell.
  Phone calls made to Barber by the Peacemaker were not returned.
  The ALKQN said they are going to continue their promotion of safe communities by trying to bring the street gangs together for unity.
  Peace and unity is also what the police department claims to want. Crotts said, “Absent criminal activity, the gang unit wouldn’t be paying attention to this group. The focuses of the gang unit’s efforts are criminal activity related to street gangs.”

   

   

   

   

  are aiding and abetting that violence, instead of helping to get it out, then that should be stated clearly and some kind of way of stating what that is,” Johnson said. “And I’d love to meet with Mr. Barber, and anybody else on the council to discuss that out. What’s sad is when that becomes a political platform to play to the historically accumulated prejudices and fears of people. And it has nothing to do with the reality. Nobody ever talked to you about it. Nobody wants to meet with you about it.” Johnson added that he understood Barber’s statement about “our three 18-carat gold ministers” to be a reference to himself, Rev. Brown and Rev. Gregory Headen, and dismissed the councilman’s slight as an attempt to shift attention away from his own troubles.

  “At a press conference held two weeks ago, the brother of AJ Blake accused Councilman Barber of saying that he could get [AJ Blake] off if he would drop out of the suit of 39 African-American and people-of-color officers against the city,” Johnson said. “And Mr. Barber vehemently denies that. We actually believe it and know it’s true. And proper time will probably demonstrate that it’s true. I think Mr. Barber’s statement was more about deflecting that improper conduct that could result in his losing his [law] license than it was any truth related to what he said.” Johnson said the pastors’ condemnation of the gang squad should not be interpreted as an effort to detract from the police department’s legitimate mandate to protect public safety.

  “We need good law enforcement,” the pastor said. “We need a good strong police department, but those parts of the police department whose behavior can be documented — and just arresting people and having it be thrown out of court — they have forfeited their right to exist as a contributing part of the community. And in no way should that be related to a relaxation or any lack of appreciation for safety in the community.”

  The pastors presented a written proposal to then-City Manager Mitchell Johnson, Mayor Yvonne Johnson and the city’s human relations commission earlier this year that “asked the police for a space for this group to work with other groups and to hold meetings that are not surrounded by the police and people are afraid to come to the meeting,” the pastor said, adding that the city manager “took an interest in it,” but was fired (for unrelated reasons) before he could take action on it. The pastors have also met on several occasions with Chief Bellamy. The Rev. Johnson said the chief told them gang violence was falling in Greensboro.

  The call to disband the gang unit and to open new dialogue has been met mostly with rejection. Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat said the Latin Kings were pursuing the proper course by filing complaints with the city’s human relations commission, and that she was not interested in meeting with the pastors or the street organization “at this time.” She conceded that “the talk and probably the presence of gangs was more active and more prominent before,” but argued that perceived trend made a case for the gang unit’s effectiveness.

  “At some point we may have to make a decision,” Groat said, “but not right now.” At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins said, “We aren’t negotiating with the head of the

   

  Latin Kings,” adding that they were welcome like any other residents to speak from the floor during council meetings.

  “We formed a gang unit for a reason, and I’m not sure the reason we formed it has disappeared,” he said. “Certainly we welcome dialogue with anybody to make Greensboro a safer place.”

  District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny said there was “not a chance in hell” that he would support disbanding the gang unit. “Our police gang unit is doing a great job,” he said. “This is just another typical Cardes Brown and Nelson Johnson deal. They won something on Tuesday night, and they’re trying to throw stones and rile feathers. No, I have absolutely no desire to take down a police gang unit that is being successful.”

   

  Tags: ALKQN, Gangs, King J, Latin Kings, peace process, Street Organizations

• 27Jun

  We Are All Fong Lee: MalcolmChe Editors Respond To Comment By “Realist”

  Police Brutality, Racism No Comments
  An All-White Jury Clears A Racist White Police Office Of Wrongdoing, Do You See Justice?

  

  Fong Lee, killed by police in North Minneapolis.

  Earlier this week we received a comment from someone calling themself “realist” on a posting we did about Fong Lee, a youth who was murdered by police in Minnesota.  First of all, “realist”  (commenting on this case from Arizona) needs to get his mind right.

  We didn’t create this site and put in work so that some apologist for racism, the capitalist court system and police terrorism could come on here and put their skewed perspective forward without being challenged.  This is OUR HOUSE, not theirs.  I mean, yeah we know the police monitor the site, we check the IP addresses of our visitors, but so far they haven’t left comments (scared?).

  This is not a game to us, as I’m sure it is to the commenter.  This is real life and we have actually been the victims of police brutality.  This is the Battle of Ideas, and we intend to win.  Hasta La Victoria Siempre!!!!!!!!

  [We will quote the commenter - goes by the name Realist but apparently too afraid to be real enough to post their real name - in red and we'll post in black.]

  There are claims that the gun was planted or a “throw-down” gun, but these claims have no merit.

  These claims have no merit?!  According to who?!  “Realist” and an all-white jury, oh yeah don’t forget the police department.  Okay.

  Many people try to point out the lack of fingerprints, blood, or other residue on the gun linking it to Fong, as if it were some kind of conspiracy. But the people saying this aren’t revealing anything except that they know nothing about forensics. There is a simple explanation for all of this. First, the fingerprints. It is common knowledge in investigative fields that you can NOT lift latent prints from a heavily textured surface. Guess what? The grip of a gun is a HEAVLIY TEXTURED SURFACE, so it is perfectly reasonable that no prints were found. It is simply not possible. Also, the lack of blood can be explained simply by the fact that blood doesn’t spurt everywhere immediately after someone is shot. Unless a major artery is hit, there simply isn’t going to be a lot of blood everywhere, except for where bullets entered and possibly exited the body. People who work in investigations know this, whereas the conspiracy theoroists clearly do not.

  First of all, learn how to spell “heavily”… there must be a ‘conspiracy’ against this guy’s spell-check.  2nd of all, what “realist” doesn’t understand is that we’re NOT ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE GUN’S GRIP YOU FOOL.  What about the bullets, the shell casings, or any other part of the gun?!  There were no fingerprints or DNA evidence on the gun WHATSOEVER.  Anyone who follows the news at all knows that criminals are very rarely thorough enough to make sure there are absolutely NO fingerprints anywhere on the gun or shell casings.  But “realist” and the others would have us believe Fong Lee is a 19-year-old criminal veteran/mastermind who made sure his weapon had absolutely no fingerprints or DNA.  Unbelievable.

  Funny though, you might have noticed “realist” left out a minor detail about the gun:  it’s origin.  This gun was - according to the police’s OWN RECORDS - in the police’s possession.  They had found the gun - which had been reported stolen - and never returned it to its rightful owner.  Then all of a sudden the gun appears next to Fong Lee’s dead body.  Apologists for police terrorism like “realist” probably believe the police when they say it was a paperwork mixup, but those of us who don’t believe everything the police tell us without our own independent thought process might have reason to believe this is HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS circumstances.

  Also, people like to point out that it is not clearly visible whether or not Fong had a gun in the surveillance video. They say that since the officer’s gun is visible, why isn’t Fong’s gun visible? Once again, this is easily explainable. Minneapolis Police carry large duty weapons, which are NOT meant to be concealed. Fong’s gun however, a SMALL .380 caliber pistol, is TINY in comparison and extremely easy to conceal. It is perfectly reasonable that a large duty gun would be visible in a grainy surveillance video, but a small pistol designed for concealment would not.

  We will concede that point, as the video is very grainy and it is possible - though unlikely - that the gun could have been concealed.  What apologists like “realist” won’t admit is that there is also a possibility that Fong didn’t have a gun and it could have been planted.  To people like “realist” the police could never plant a gun, its impossible for them to be corrupt.  We at Malcolm-Che know better than to trust authorities without question.

  But you know what is indisputably 100% seen in the video?  Fong Lee running at full speed, trying to GET AWAY.  At what point do the apologists for police terrorism feel that the young Fong Lee transforms from a running away 19-year-old to the hardened criminal they make him out to be, the hardened criminal that turns around and tries to have a shoot out with the cop?!  Where is the motive for Fong Lee to have a shoot out when as a 19-year-old he most certainly could have evaded the cop on a foot chase and lived another day?  We have NO REASON to believe that Fong Lee was the hardened criminal attempted cop killer that they want us to think he is.  We’re talking about a 19 year old who was riding his bicycle with friends next to a school.  Not exactly what you picture when thinking of a cop killer.

  Another issue people complain about is the number of shots used to take down Fong. People who complain about this clearly have ZERO knowledge of handgun ballistic/effectiveness and the law regarding use of deadly force. First, police officers and private citizens with carry permits are taught that if their life, or the life of another is threatened, to shoot and continue shooting at center mass until the threat is gone. Even if the suspect has fallen the the ground but still has control of a weapon or is trying to reach a weapon, deadly force is still allowed under law, and rightfully so. A suspect with a handgun, or even reaching for a handgun, is clearly a deadly threat.

  Second, handguns are notoriously poor “fight stoppers.” There are numerous records of suspects who have been shot MANY more times than Fong was, and lived to tell the tale. You will also notice I said they are trained to shoot at CENTER MASS (the chest.) Some people have said he should have tried shooting Fong in the leg, which is ridiculous Hollywood non-sense. Shooting at a narrow target like a leg is incredibly difficult, even if the target is immobile and and at close range. People who suggest that watch too many movies, and clearly have never shot a gun, especially under stressful conditions.

  There is so much more I could add, but I think this is more than enough for now. Until people understand what I have written here, they really aren’t informed enough to participate in a debate like this.

  “Realist” is so filled with self-righteousness its disgusting.  He pics and chooses what to address and what not to address.  He’s blinded by his loyalty to this police state, never having questioned any official story in his life.  While he’s busy trying to justify the murder of this 19-year-old he loses all compassion for other human beings.  To “realist” it doesn’t matter that Fong was brutally murdered and pumped full of bullets, to him every single bullet was justified.  When Fong Lee was on the ground - already shot 3 times - the cop pumped 5 more into him.  He didn’t just want to incapacitate Fong Lee, he wanted to murder him.  It wasn’t until Fong Lee was totally motionless and dead on the ground that the cop was done.

  What “realist” won’t look at is the issue of RACISM.  He never mentioned the fact that the cop is white or that the jury was all white.  To him, racism doesn’t exist in this case at all.  He finds no need to even mention it once, not even to argue against it.  An all-white jury finds a white cop innocent of murdering Fong Lee, and to “realist” and his ilk justice has been done!!  Could it be because.. hmmmm…. “realist” is white?  Because if “realist” was keeping it real he’d have to admit that the all-white jury, white judge and white prosecutor all conspired to make sure the jury never heard that the police officer Jason Andersen made two verifiable racist comments, once about Asian people (see the article in this post).  But the jury never heard all that, and “realist” isn’t real enough to address it.  Even though racism permeates this case from start to finish, some people can’t see racism even when its right in front of their eyes.

  So the all-white jury heard that Fong Lee was a gang member, slandering his name and making him look like a gun-toting criminal… but they were barred from hearing that his murderer was a racist who hated Asians.  But to “realist,” this doesn’t even warrant a comment.

  And what about the angelic police officer (Jason Andersen) who murdered Fong Lee?  Well, he was just in the news for beating up a woman.

  

  What a great guy… sexist and racist.  But that is the hero that “realist” worships, on the altar of brutality and death that the police impose upon minorities and ghettoes across America and the world.

  FONG LEE REST IN PEACE!!!  WE WILL CONTINUE THE FIGHT AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY AND THE APOLOGISTS WHO REFUSE TO SEE IT!!

• 26Jun

  US - Pennslyvania: Harrisburg teen shot by police was unarmed, DA’s office says

  Police Brutality No Comments

  Harrisburg teen shot by police was unarmed, DA’s office says

  

  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/06/harrisburg_shooting_victim_was.html

  The 17-year-old boy shot in the face by police Wednesday night in an uptown Harrisburg neighborhood was not armed when he was shot, Dauphin County Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo has confirmed.

  The boy, identified by family members as Leonard D. Howze, is unconscious in a hospital bed, with a bullet lodged near the top of his spine. A cousin reports Howze is paralyzed and fighting for his life. An attorney representing Howze family, Spiro Lappas, of Harrisburg, could not confirm that report, saying just that Howze is in critical but stable condition
  

  Chardo said he is investigating whether or not the officer who shot Howze was justified in using deadly force. “We have not completed our evaluation yet into whether the shooting was justified,” said Chardo. “The question is going to be did he believe it was necessary to use force to prevent death or serious bodily injury to himself or another.”

  According to reports, Howze and three other males were riding in a car that matched the description of a vehicle believed to have been involved a shooting in the 500 block of Woodbine Street, where someone pumped several shots into a home occupied by an elderly couple and their 11-year-old grandson. When police tried to stop the car, one person fled on foot while the other three took off in the car, with Howze’s older brother, Lamar, 18, at the wheel, police said.

  After the car was stopped, the three occupants ran from the scene. Lamar Howze and a passenger, William L. Pierce Jr., 24, were apprehended a short distance away, police said, and both face drug and escape charges. Another occupant, Anthony B. Arrington, 22, faces gun charges.

  According to Chardo, the officer who fired the shot told investigators Leonard Howze ran directly at him and ignored repeated orders to stop. The officer said he was backed up against the car with no place to escape Howze’s charge.

  Tags: Pennslyvania, Police Brutality

• 26Jun

  US - California: Oakland cop fired after second killing

  Police Brutality No Comments

  Oakland cop fired after second killing

  

  Mack "Jody" Woodfox III, murdered by police for running away, shot multiple times in the back.

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/21/BAAD18AVTQ.DTL

  An Oakland police officer who shot and killed two unarmed men in separate incidents within a year has been fired by the city for violating department use-of-force policies in the more recent shooting, his attorney said Saturday.

  Officer Hector Jimenez was terminated earlier this month in connection with the 2008 shooting death of Mack “Jody” Woodfox III, 27, in the city’s Fruitvale District, said Jimenez’s attorney, Justin Buffington. Woodfox was shot three times in the back, his family said.

  The department said Jimenez violated use-of-force policies because Woodfox no longer posed a threat to the officer at the time of the shooting, Buffington said. But the attorney said the firing was “completely inappropriate” and that Jimenez will appeal.

  “I don’t think the department wanted to terminate him but had to terminate him for political reasons,” Buffington said, referring to the public outcry that resulted because Jimenez had shot and killed two people within seven months.

  Officer Jeff Thomason, department spokesman, said he could not comment because it was a personnel issue.

  Oakland police have said that Jimenez, who graduated from the police academy in February 2007, fired numerous shots at Woodfox on July 25, 2008, hitting him in the back. Jimenez said he believed Woodfox, a drunken-driving suspect, was reaching into his waistband for a gun when he jumped from his car and ran from police. The chase ended at East 17th Street and Fruitvale Avenue.

  Woodfox was not armed, however, and his family filed a $10 million federal civil rights suit against the city of Oakland and Jimenez that is still pending. The complaint cited a previous fatal shooting involving Jimenez as evidence that the officer was poorly trained.

  On New Year’s Eve 2007, Jimenez and Officer Jessica Borello shot and killed 20-year-old Andrew Moppin-Buckskin at 47th Avenue and International Boulevard in Oakland after he ran from his car following a traffic stop, police said. Moppin-Buckskin was not armed, but the officers told investigators that they believed he had been reaching for his waistband. The officers did not violate any policies, the department said.

  John Burris, an Oakland attorney representing the families of both men killed by Jimenez, said Saturday that he was gratified by the officer’s termination.

  “His conduct was egregious. A young man is dead who should not be dead,” Burris said. “Maybe two young men are dead who should not be dead. We thought this case not only warranted termination, but certainly warranted prosecution.”

  Buffington disagreed, saying his client is “confident in his actions on both occasions, and he certainly felt that he was put in a position where he had no other choice. It’s every cop’s nightmare to have to use deadly force and, unfortunately, he was confronted with circumstances that required it.”

  Tags: California, police murders

• 26Jun

  US: Attorney general wants review of cocaine sentences

  Prison State, Racism No Comments

  A day late and a dollar short, this process has been way too long in the coming.  It was blatantly obvious to anyone that looked into this issue that the laws were set up to target impoverished minorities and to benefit wealthier whites.  Laws like this show the modern day Jim Crow.  But if the end result of this “review” is that cocaine charges get bumped up to equal the charges associated with crack then we’ve won a very minor victory indeed.  What we need is our people to be freed and provided with an opportunity to make a good livlihood in the legal economy, something capitalism in this era will not provide.  And if the attorney general admits these were wrong, will they commute the sentences of those still serving?  Will they pay restitution to victims of this racist and classist law?!  Don’t hold your breath!!

  Attorney general wants review of cocaine sentences

  http://www.wrex.com/Global/story.asp?S=10592176

  WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder wants to change federal sentencing laws to erase the gap in prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine crimes.

  It’s a disparity that hits black defendants the hardest.

  Under current law, it takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh, mandatory minimum sentences.

  The Obama administration wants to change the law to end the 100 to 1 ratio in sentencing, and make it strictly 1 to 1. Some lawmakers aren’t sure it should be reduced that drastically. There also is debate over whether to close the gap by raising the penalty for powder cocaine, in addition to lowering the penalty for crack.

  Speaking at a legal discussion sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, Holder says the administration is firm in the belief the sentencing disparity “must be eliminated.”

  Tags: Prison State, Racism

• 26Jun

  US - Florida: Vigil planned for tourist shot by Miami Beach police

  Activism, Police Brutality No Comments

  “..[there is] surveillance video from the scene which shows Husien ‘attempting to put his hands up when he is executed’…”

  We first covered this story here.

  Vigil planned for tourist shot by Miami Beach police

  

  http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1104957.html

  Last weekend’s shooting death of a tourist visiting Miami Beach has drawn national attention from Arab-American groups and others who are planning a vigil Friday night in front of the Miami Beach police headquarters.

  The South Florida Palestine Solidarity Network is organizing the vigil with other groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace-South Florida, to denounce Miami Beach police over the death of Husien Shehada, a 29-year-old Palestinian American from Virginia.

  ”We want assurances from Miami Beach police that any Arab Americans should not fear police brutality on the streets of Miami Beach,” said Muhammed Malik, coordinator and law student at St. Thomas University.

  The vigil comes the same week that a Washington-based group — the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee — also decried the shooting death and demanded “a complete and thorough investigation . . . as quickly as possible.”

  ”Police brutality, regardless of the victim’s race or origin, will not be tolerated. ADC will be working with the victim’s family, legal counsel and the proper state and federal authorities to ensure that justice is served,” ADC National Executive Director Kareem Shora said in a statement.

  Shehada, a limousine chauffeur from Woodbridge, Va., was in Miami Beach nearing the end of a five-day vacation about 4 a.m. Sunday morning when he was stopped by a Miami Beach police officer.

  Law enforcement sources told The Miami Herald that Shehada may have concealed an empty beer bottle under his shirt that appeared to some passers-by to be a gun, sparking several 911 calls about an armed man on the street.

  When responding officers encountered Shehada outside a Washington Avenue nightclub early Sunday, he appeared to be reaching for the concealed object, prompting a patrolman to open fire, the sources said.

  But John Contini, a lawyer for the Shehada family, vigorously denied Husien had a bottle. He also said that he has viewed surveillance video from the scene which shows Husien “attempting to put his hands up when he is executed.”

  Added Contini: “He was an unarmed Virginia businessman who was essentially executed by an overzealous police officer.”

  On Thursday, the police union voiced support for the officer.

  ”We are confident our officer will be vindicated once all the information comes out. We believe he was well within the guidelines [for use of force],” said Sgt. Alejandro Bello, president of Miami Beach’s Fraternal Order of Police.

  The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting.

  The Miami Beach Police Department’s internal affairs unit is also investigating what led to the shooting, according to Detective Juan Sanchez, a department spokesman. But the department has referred all questions to the state attorney’s office.

  Friday night’s vigil is set to begin at 6 p.m. in front of the Miami Beach police headquarters, 1100 Washington Ave.

  Tags: Activism, Florida, police murders

• 26Jun

  Europe - England: Girl hurt in racist attack

  Europe, Racism No Comments

  “A guy started saying stuff about the BNP. He told me he was more British than I was and that I didn’t belong here…”

  Girl hurt in racist attack

  

  The victim of the racist attack, pictured with the pendant still embedded in her face.

  http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/news/s/1122131_girl_hurt_in_racist_attack

  A TEENAGE girl has spoken about the moment she was racially abused before being punched in the face by another girl in Springfield Park.

  The 17-year-old victim was hit with such force that the pendant from her attacker’s bracelet was left embedded in her face, an inch from her eye.

  She sustained a fractured eye socket, a deep cut and severe bruising in the attack, which took place at about 7.20pm last Tuesday.

  The victim had taken her three young sisters to play on the swings, together with her sister-in-law, who was with her 12-month-old baby daughter.

  The group were confronted by two girls already on the swings and told they could not use them, before being racially abused.

  A short time later, a third girl and a boy joined in the abuse, before the victim was punched in the face by one of the girls, the pendant from her bracelet narrowly missing her eye.

  She was taken by ambulance to Rochdale Infirmary with it still embedded in her face, where doctors then removed it.

  Three girls, two aged 16 and one aged 14, were arrested in connection with the incident and bailed until 16 July pending further inquiries.

  A man was arrested and released without charge.

  Police are keen to trace a man who was wearing a red T-shirt, possibly a Manchester United top, who intervened during the verbal abuse and before the attack took place.

  Speaking exclusively to the Observer, the victim, who has asked to remain anonymous, says the pain of being hit was so severe she thought the pendant had gone into her eye.

  She said: “My eye was really swollen. It felt like my eyeball had come out.”

  The 17-year-old, who is training to be a hairdresser, says this is the first tine she has ever encountered anything like this, either in the park or elsewhere. She added: “A guy started saying stuff about the BNP. He told me he was more British than I was and that I didn’t belong here.

  “I wasn’t happy about the racist comments. At the end of the day, we’re all human beings it doesn’t matter what race we are.”

  

  The victim of the racist attack after medical treatment.

  Police Constable Lee Worswick, of the hate crime unit based at Rochdale, said: “This was a particularly savage attack on a young teenage girl who had simply gone out with her three younger sisters to play on the swings. If the pendant had gone into her eyeball, she could have suffered permanent damage and lost her eyesight. If that had happened, this senseless and needless attack would have ended in tragedy.

  “Racism in any form is totally abhorren,t and shows a complete lack of education and understanding for other cultures. We are working very hard through the hate crime unit to send out the message that we will not tolerate this sort of behaviour and we will punish racists.

  “Extra officers were brought in over the weekend to deal with this job and we understand it will cause concern in the community. This has enabled us to make arrests but we will not be complacent. We are very keen to speak to the man who intervened during the verbal abuse so we can move this investigation forward.”

  The victim’s 22-year-old sister-in-law says she believes the full severity of the attack has yet to sink in.

  She said: “I think she’s still in shock about what happened and will be for a while.”

  The attack has been condemned by the Friends of Springfield Park group, which has pledged to invite a GMP representative to their next meeting to discuss how to prevent any similar incidents happening in future.

  Chairman Dave Logan said: “Everyone, regardless of age, creed, religion, colour, race, politics or anything else, has a right to feel and be safe in our parks.

  “Perhaps it is time to consider adopting a zero tolerance policy and nipping any sort of racist crime, and all other crimes, in the bud.”

  Tags: England, Europe, Racism

• 25Jun

  US – Texas: We Salute The Reeves Detention Center Uprisings

  Activism, Class Struggle, Crime, Healthcare, Immigration, Prison State No Comments

  We have followed this story from the beginning; since the 1st uprising in December, to the second uprising in February, to the arrest of 3 corrections officers working there in March. 

   

  Reeves Detention Center is a 2,400 inmate PRIVATIZED prison in Texas that houses a large population of undocumented immigrants.  This for-profit prison (like all of them) is administered for the greatest profit possible, of course any corner that can be cut will be!  An inmate needs healthcare attention?  Sorry, costs too much!  Leave him to die!  They may has well have said “let him eat cake.” 

   

  We at Malcolm-Che give our full solidarity to the rightous prisoners who rose up against these horrible conditions when one of their friends died at the hands of these capitalists!!  It was the death of Manuel Galindo that sparked the uprising, but it was the poor food, poor healthcare and anger generated from the indefinate detention of these immigrants that made the uprising possible. 

   

  They took hostages (which they later released), demanded to speak to the Mexican consulate; tried anything they could do to try to get the word out about what was going on inside.  We salute you!  25 of them are up on charges right now resulting from the uprisings, we demand they be given clemency!

   

  From immigration to healthcare to privatized prisons this article touches on so many issues that are important to us.  This is MUST READ!!

   

   

  Attorney says inmate’s death led to Pecos prison riots 

  

  Here is a pic of the uprising at Reeves County Detention Center in Texas.

  PECOS — The death of a 32-year-old epileptic inmate in solitary confinement at Reeves County Detention Center last Dec. 12 touched off the first of two riots that saw fires set and hostages taken, said an attorney for the dead inmate’s family.

  Some of the privately run federal lockup’s 2,400 inmates, many of them illegal immigrants, had complained of woeful health care after the riots on Dec. 12-13 and Jan. 31-Feb. 1.

  But the story now centers on 32-year-old Jesus Manuel Galindo of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, who El Paso lawyer Miguel “Mike” Torres claims was improperly treated.

  Representing Galindo’s widow, three children and parents with co-counsel Leon Schydlower, Torres said last week that a member of a Lubbock physicians’ group that contracts with the prison had examined Galindo just before his death.

  “The doctor said Jesus had an attitude problem because he was complaining about the lack of medical treatment that killed him three days later,” said Torres.

  Galindo “had no business” being in the Security Housing Unit, Torres said, “because he was only in for minor infractions, not fighting or worse.”

  The inmate’s mother had been calling almost daily to say he was not feeling well and was having seizures, said Galindo’s attorney.

  “She mailed the prison his medical records, but they sent them back with a curt note that said, ‘Don’t send these again.,’ ” Torres said.

  “When they found him at 7 a.m. Dec. 12, rigor mortis had set in, which meant he had been dead for three to five hours,” the attorney said. “I attended his funeral, and the small neighborhood funeral home in south El Paso was filled to overflowing. It was tragic because he was a young man.”

  Cellmates rioted

  Torres, who said he is taking steps toward a civil lawsuit against the company operating the prison, said Galindo’s former cellmates touched off the riot because they had feared that result. “Everything we learned is that they were worried sick about this guy,” he said.

  “They tried to contact the administration and say, ‘Bring him back and we will watch him.’ You have to take this type of medication (Dilantin) at precise times at well-monitored therapeutic levels.”

  Judy Madewell, a federal public defender in San Antonio who was handling Galindo’s appeal of a 30-month term for illegal re-entry into the United States, said she has “had concerns for a long time because RCDC has had a number of problems with inmates getting proper medical attention.

  “My secretary translated a letter in which Jesus said, ‘I’m afraid I’m going to die and no one will find me!’ ” Madewell said.

  “We feel horrible about what happened and feel like there is a lot of responsibility on the facility’s part.”

  She reported sending Octavio Vasquez, an investigator with the federal defender’s office in Alpine, to spend three hours with Galindo on Dec. 4.

  “He was in the SHU for minor disciplinary infractions,” Madewell said of Galindo.

  “Octavio went to the authorities and said, ‘He needs removing from solitary,’ and they said, ‘Yes, we will move him out by this weekend.’ He was still there when he died eight days later.

  “Jesus told Octavio the prison was not giving him his meds often enough and lowered the dosage. He was a gentle person — not a problem client, and as far as I know not a problem inmate.”

  Assistant Federal Defender Charlotte Harris of Alpine, whose office represented Galindo after his arrest, said the Geo Group of Boca Raton, Fla., operates the detention center with support from Reeves County.

  “It’s better for the government to run prisons, rather than private companies, because corners can be cut if you have a profit motive,” said Harris.

  No response from prison

  A call to the prison last week was referred to Geo Group’s Florida headquarters, where a spokesman asked that questions be submitted by e-mail. Geo did not respond to e-mailed questions.

  Two prison recreation specialists were released unharmed after the first riot. The rec center was torched during that melee, and smoke poured from a housing unit during the second, broadcast by cable news, after which three inmates were hospitalized, one missing a finger.

  Charged with assault and other crimes, 25 inmates face trial, a court official said.

  Tags: Activism, Class Struggle, Healthcare, Immigration, Prison Industrial Complex, Prison State, prison uprising, Texas

• 25Jun

  US - Arkansas: Arkansas prison troubles echo problems of the past

  Prison State No Comments
  “What taxpayers need to face up to is that prisons ought to be designed to make a person better having been there, not worse. The way they’re designed now, it’s very unusual for someone to come out better.”

  -

  Arkansas prison troubles echo problems of the past

  

  Officer = Overseer!!! This pic is from an Arkansas prison farm circa 1975... some things never change!!

  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h8FrM93wx_n8iSsYFoE63KLdXb0QD991L12O0

  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Inmates carrying sawed-off shotguns once patrolled the grounds of Arkansas state prisons, keeping other prisoners in line with fear and intimidation. The few guards kept order with 5-foot-long leather straps and a device that sent an electric charge through an offender’s toe and genitals.

  Forty years ago, a federal judge declared Arkansas’ prisons an unconstitutional “dark and evil world,” and it took more than a decade for the system to break free of federal supervision. But a spate of recent allegations — including an inmate left naked and covered in his own feces for days who nearly died — have state officials studying a past they had hoped was behind them.

  “We’ve got to stay on top of it because we don’t want to get back into federal court on this one,” said state Sen. Bobby Glover, who heads a panel overseeing the prison system. “We don’t want our prison system being held unconstitutional.”

  No state official compares the prison system of today to what it once was. But in the past several months, several misconduct allegations have surfaced behind the gates. Investigators say guards at one facility received lap dances from a nurse while on the job. Two convicted murderers escaped by wearing handmade guard uniforms. Guards shot and killed a man who officials said had fled a contraband checkpoint.

  Gov. Mike Beebe said he won’t call for state prisons chief Larry Norris to be fired because he believes problems in Arkansas are similar to those in other states. Norris joined the state prison system in 1971 and became director in 1993. Beebe said through a spokesman that he has “full faith” in his ability to run the 15,000-inmate system.

  The tortured past of Arkansas’ prisons dates to the early 20th century. In 1933, the state closed its penitentiary in Little Rock and moved all the prisoners to the Cummins and Tucker prison farms, where privileged inmates guarded the others.

  For the next 30 years, inmates died from killings and disease as gambling, alcohol and rape permeated the farms. Some prisoners reported being beaten at random by their inmate guards, while food — no matter how poor — remained in short supply.

  One inmate often ate “cornbread and molasses for breakfast and a bowl of peas for lunch, and had had to ’skim the worms off of the top of the bowl before eating them,’” an Arkansas State Police report said.

  By 1966, then-Gov. Orval Faubus ordered state police to investigate allegations of extortion, misuse of state property and inmate drunkenness. Severe riots broke out at Cummins. Two years later, human skeletons found at Cummins were alleged to have come from inmates beaten to death and secretly buried there.

  “We have probably the most barbaric prison system in the United States,” then-Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller said.

  Bob Scott, Rockefeller’s prison liaison, said the governor realized how bad the system had become during a visit to Cummins, when his bodyguard had to give up his pistol to a murderer he arrested 10 years earlier.

  “You can control anything with fear,” said Scott, now 75. “The attitude in Arkansas at the time was ‘out of sight, out of mind — just don’t bother us with the details.’”

  U.S. District Judge J. Smith Henley took the first step toward reform in 1965, when he ordered guards to stop using corporal punishment. In 1969, he found portions of the state prison system unconstitutional, setting up his historic 1970 decision to put the entire state prison system under federal control — a first for the nation.

  The prisons added school classes, increased the number of guards and improved facilities before coming out from underneath federal supervision in 13 years. Still, problems inside the prisons have persisted.

  In 1995, state police revealed that a smuggling ring had brought drugs, weapons and alcohol onto death row. That same year, a federal judge ordered prison officials to place more guards at Cummins after an lawsuit claimed the state had violated inmates’ rights by failing to adequately protect them from fellow prisoners.

  An inmate escaped from Cummins in 1999 and killed a farmer and later another man in a traffic crash. A federal grand jury indicted former prison guards in 2001 for allegedly shocking three inmates on the testicles and elsewhere when they were disruptive.

  In 2003, a Justice Department report said officials at two state prisons at Newport were “deliberately indifferent” to prison conditions and inmates with serious medical problems. In one case, an inmate who complained of chest pains after open-heart surgery “was given Tylenol and sent back to his housing unit.”

  Problems continued into 2007. Prison guards were fired for using excessive force against inmates, and other employees lost their jobs or resigned over a probe into bootleg computers that inmates at Tucker had built to watch pornographic films.

  Scott said state prisons today are better than those four decades ago but likely still lag behind others in the nation.

  “Anytime you have men cooped up like animals, you’re going to have problems,” Scott said. “What taxpayers need to face up to is that prisons ought to be designed to make a person better having been there, not worse. The way they’re designed now, it’s very unusual for someone to come out better.”

  Tags: Arkansas, Prison State

• 24Jun

  US: Panel on Prison Rape Hears Victims’ Chilling Accounts

  Crime, Prison State, Sexism 17 Comments

  We been saying this here at Malcolm-Che!!  Anyone who has people behind bars has heard the stories of rape.  And like it’s noted in this article, prison rape is part and parcel of the entire direction of prisons as punishment, not rehabilitation.  Guards look the other way, prisoners look the other way, no one does anything.  You know who did do something though?  Activists like those known as the Angola 3.  These Black Panther brothers knew that there could be no unity behind bars without stopping the ‘punk factory’ going on, the sexual exploitation.  Make sure you read this article, its a MUST READ!! 

  Oh yeah, and for those of you who don’t like it when Malcolm-Che says the prison guards are the most powerful gang inside the pen, here’s a statistic for you:  That study also said more prisoners reported abuse by staff than by other prisoners: 2.9 percent to about 2 percent, respectively.

  Panel on Prison Rape Hears Victims’ Chilling Accounts

  

  Three prison rape victims at the San Francisco hearing on the problem. From the left, Cecilia Chung, Hope Hernandez and Chance Martin.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/politics/20rape.html?pagewanted=all

  SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19 - T. J. Parsell was a lanky pimple-faced adolescent bent on mischief. So when he found a toy gun one evening in 1978 while wandering home from a high school party, he thought nothing of pointing it at a store clerk and grumbling, “Your money or your life.”

  He got $50 for what he now calls “a stupid impulsive prank.” The incident landed the 17-year-old Parsell in an adult jail, where on his first night, an older inmate spiked his drink with Thorazine and sexually abused and raped him.

  “While my friends prepared for our high school prom, I was being gang raped,” Mr. Parsell testified on Friday to a Congressional commission investigating prison sexual abuse and rape.

  Mr. Parsell, now 45, and a successful software executive who lives on Long Island, was one of six victims of prison rape to relate disturbing accounts with a bipartisan panel of The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission here.

  “What they took from me went beyond sex,” Mr. Parsell said. “They’d stolen my manhood, my identity and part of my soul.”

  The panel, which also heard from state and federal legislators, law enforcement and prison officials and mental health experts, has been investigating the prevalence, cause and possible solutions to a problem that many experts say has escalated as the prison system is collapsing. Overcrowding, staff shortages and budget cuts have contributed to an often taboo topic.

  “As a society, we have an obligation to protect the people we lock up, even though they have harmed society,” the commission chairman, Judge Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court in Washington, said. “Some people say inmates get what they deserve. But they don’t think about the overall impact on society.”

  The body, created by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, was appointed by President Bush in June 2004, focusing on questions like inmates’ physical and mental problems after being released and economic burdens.

  Judge Walton, speaking before the meeting here, the second in a national series, conceded in an interview that the government did not know the magnitude of prison rape.

  “We don’t really know the prevalence right now,” he said. “But I’ve been in the criminal justice system for 20 years and I have always believed the anecdotal evidence.”

  On July 31, the Justice Department released its first statistical report on prison rape and inmate sexual abuse, a report also required under the 2003 act. It estimated that there were at least 8,210 reported incidents of sexual abuse and rape a year within a prison population that exceeds 2.1 million.

  According to the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, prison assaults rose 26 percent from 2000 to 2004.

  Kendell Spruce told the commission that he was infected with H.I.V. after having been raped at knifepoint in 1991 in an Arkansas state prison. Mr. Spruce, who was convicted of forging a check to buy cocaine, said that in one nine-month period he was raped by at least 27 inmates. He was 28 years old and weighed 123 pounds.

  “The physical pain was devastating,” he said. “But the emotional pain was even worse.”

  A spokeswoman for the Arkansas Correction Department told The Associated Press that the accusations were untrue that that she believed that Mr. Spruce initiated the activity or was a willing participant. After his five-year term, Mr. Parsell returned to society as an addict of drugs, to “drown out the memories and pain.”

  He continues to hold back tears as he says he still struggles with the emotional residue of rape, a crime that tarnished his self-esteem and ability to trust.

  Chance Martin, 50, an advocate for the homeless here, told the panel that he was incarcerated for 72 hours in April 1973, when he was arrested as an 18-year-old at a party where another guest had hashish. The charges were dropped, but Mr. Martin’s three days in jail nearly ruined his life.

  “On a purely emotional level,” he said after testifying, “I have issues with self-confidence and trust since that day.”

  Mr. Martin echoed others’ statements when he faulted a deteriorating prison system and what he described as a society that is indifferent, and at times disdainful, of people who have been incarcerated.

  “Prison rape is a symptom of American society’s retreat from rehabilitation toward a system that relies purely on punishment,” he said.

  The secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Roderick Q. Hickman, told the panel that California was trying to quantify the problem. But he said outdated prison designs, inadequate electronic surveillance systems and an antiquated computer database had stalled progress.

  The information technology “system in California is completely inadequate,” Mr. Hickman said.

  “We need a system that can report and handle the cultural classifications of the population.” he added.

  Mr. Hickman, appointed last month, said he was working to streamline and centralize procedures to investigate accusations of sexual abuse that were previously handled by individual prisons.

  To address guard intransigence, the department has established training programs intended to break what Mr. Hickman called “the code of silence” among guards, behavior that has helped conceal prison rapes.

  Representative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who was an initial co-sponsor of the 2003 law, equated prison rape with human rights violations. She and other prison rights advocates have stressed the need for “zero tolerance” and a corrections system that accommodates different sexual and cultural orientations.

  “By doing nothing,” Ms. Lee said, “we condone this inhumane and abusive behavior. Indifference, deliberate or not, violates the Eight Amendment of the Constitution banning cruel and unusual punishment.”

  In the afternoon, the panel heard criminologists, law enforcement officials and leaders of transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual groups about the need for better inmate classification.

  “We don’t want a first-time offender charged with drunken driving to be housed next to a guy who has committed multiple armed robberies, and who has been in and out of the system for years,” said Bart Lanni, the sheriff’s deputy for Los Angeles County.

  Mr. Lanni said misplaced inmates ran an increased risk of being a target of sexual abuse.

  “Predators looking to rape someone tend to pick people without close ties or a gang affiliation,” Dr. Terry A. Kupers, a psychiatrist and an expert on prison rape, said.

  All the victims testifying on Friday said that they might have escaped their rapes if the authorities had placed them with inmates of similar age, race, sexual orientation and the same categories of crime.

  Tags: Prison State, Sexism

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