Policeman hits New Mexican girl in head with Taser.

NEW MEXICO (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A girl from New Mexico is recovering after being hit in the head with a Taser by police.

It all started when the 14 year old got in a fight with her mother. Her mom drove her to the police station looking for help.

When they got there the girl took off running and the police chief later found her in a nearby park.

When he approached the girl the chief says she took off running again. He says he told her to stop, but when she didn’t, he hit her with the Taser.

The girl says that’s not what happened.

“He didn’t try to do anything, he just decided to use the Taser,” said the girl.

The Taser hit the girl in the head and back. She fell and a stick got lodged in her face. She had to have surgery and now has staples in her head where the Taser hit her.

The girl’s mother says she’s outraged and filed a lawsuit against the police department.

The police chief says he defends his actions.

Racist, Sexist Graffiti Targets Female Firefighters

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6518362.html

Racist and sexist epithets scrawled across a firehouse door greeted two female firefighters as they reported to work Tuesday — just weeks after City Council authorized sensitivity training to restore harmony in the department.

The discovery happened about 6:30 a.m. at Fire Station 54 at Intercontinental Airport, a station that the president of the Houston Black Firefighter’s Association said previously has suffered vandalism in the women’s quarters.

“This is a very painful day,” said Executive Assistant Fire Chief Rick Flanagan. “This is without a doubt an act of hate. … It is so distasteful, so painful, so despicable. We have the full support of the police department, and we have asked them to expedite this investigation.”

Flanagan did not reveal the content of the graffiti, nor identify the female firefighters, one of whom is white, the other black.

Fire Chief Phil Boriskie said the case has been referred to the city’s office of the inspector general.

“This is a terminating offense and, frankly, a criminal offense,” he said. “We will prosecute this to the fullest.”

Mayor Bill White said the city will not tolerate any form of racial or gender discrimination.

“Before we judge and generalize,” he added, “we need to get the facts. … We will get to the bottom of it.”

Boriskie cautioned that the perpetrator may not have been a firefighter. Flanagan, however, noted that only those with FAA clearance have access to the fire station, where 10-12 firefighters are assigned to handle aircraft emergencies.

Activist wants chief fired

Tuesday’s episode came just weeks after City Council approved $60,000 for firefighter sensitivity training. That measure was aimed at calming racial tension in the department that grew out of the discovery of a noose-like knot in the locker of veteran fire Capt. Keith Smith.

Smith told city officials the rope was a fisherman’s knot he had kept in honor of the firefighter who showed him how to tie it.

But black activists decried it as an emblem of overt racism, and one, Deric Muhammad, called for Boriskie’s resignation.

Muhammad renewed that call Tuesday, saying, “Only strong leadership can root out the cancer of racism in the Houston Fire Department.”

Flanagan on Tuesday said the Smith case was resolved by “putting a note in his permanent file.”

City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, who advocated for sensitivity training and suggested it be extended to other departments, Tuesday said the U.S. Justice Department might be better equipped to investigate the graffiti incident.

“I think there is more than graffiti. I absolutely have reason to believe there may be retaliation for something,” she said.

Fire Capt. Otis Jordan, president of the black firefighter’s group, said women’s quarters at Station 54 previously had been targeted by vandals. Recently, he said, one of the women targeted in Tuesday’s incident had filed a complaint after someone disconnected the cold water in the women’s shower.

Jordan also said someone had urinated in the sinks and on the walls of the women’s restroom.

“We are not going to stand for our sisters — or a white female — being treated that way,” Jordan said.

Jordan said he received a tearful telephone call from one of the firefighters shortly after she discovered the offensive graffiti.

Flanagan on Tuesday said he has assigned a team to check Jordan’s allegations and to find out what, if anything, was done to address them.

Pastor calls for calm

Speaking at a morning news conference alongside fire department leaders, the Rev. James Nash, pastor of the predominantly black St. Paul Baptist Church, called for calm as the investigation continues and criticized “factions in the community who want conflict.”

Jeffrey Caynon, president of the nearly 4,000-member Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, denounced “reckless stereotyping of the men and women of all races of the HFD by opportunist activists and self-appointed ‘labor’ organizations that inflame emotions but rarely offer solutions.”

In an afternoon news conference, Muhammad said he interpreted the graffiti as a death threat.

Fire department officials Tuesday said the graffiti incident left them badly shaken.

Boriskie described himself as “angry, embarrassed and bothered.”

Flanagan, who is black, said he has experienced few days of bitterness in the 30-plus years he’s spent with the department.

“This,” he said, “is one of those days.”

“Sherbini, a pharmacist who was four months’ pregnant and wore the Islamic head scarf, was involved in a court case against her neighbour after he called her a terrorist. She was due to testify when he stabbed her 18 times inside the courtroom in front of her three-year-old son.”

This is crazy, this racist stabbed a pregnant woman!!!  You might not run into racism of this rabbid variety, but will you speak up if someone says a racist comment in front of you, or will you be silent?!

Outrage over Muslim woman killed in court

Funeral of a Martyr: Thousands of Egyptians mourned the victim of German hate crime who was a pregnant Egyptian woman, during her funeral in Alexandria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/muslim-woman-shot-germany-court

If an immigrant tries to seek medical help, Italians are required to turn them in to authorities.  Laws like this make it so that ”illegal” AKA undocumented immigrants won’t seek medical help for their families.  It’s horrible.  Not to mention that this law deputizes citizens to be patrols, I bet the ’Minutemen’ here in America are licking their lips wishing they could be the same. 

This xenophobia is on the rise all across Europe and the world (remember the anti-immigrant riots in South Africa not too long ago) as a result of the decline of capitalism and its profits.  As people search for someone to blame for their problems they grasp onto other victims of capitalism, instead of pointing the finger where it should be pointed:  at their own ruling class.  This has lead to viscious attacks but it is only the beginning.  If capitalism doesn’t stabilize it will get much worse. 

Italy targets illegal immigrants

Modern-day fascists in Italy oppose all "non-Italians" living in their country. The decline of capitalism causes this xenophobia to rear its ugly head.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/07/2009767145577693.html

A restaurant called White sits on a small side street in the centre of Rome. 

While people on the ground floor order their pastas and salad, a meeting is being held upstairs. 

Amid shouts of “victory” and straight-armed salutes, the Movimento Sociale Italiano party (MSI), which believes Italy would be a better country if it stopped immigration and cracked down on those who sneak in illegally, is celebrating the fact that new legislation passed by the Italian senate has met many of their wishes.

The law makes illegal immigration a crime punishable with a maximum fine of $14,000 and raises to six months the amount of time that illegal migrants can be detained in holding centres before being kicked out of the country.

Gaetano Saya, a MSI member, has been investigated by police for posting racist material on a website. He once said “immigration is the biggest threat to our race”. 

In charge of today’s gathering, as we sit in the cool of the café he tells me: “We think the immigrants are very dangerous. When we come to power we will stop all immigration and begin to send back those who arrived here after a certain date.

“We have a new phrase. These people are not immigrants, they are non-Italians and we don’t want any more non-Italians on Italian territory.”

Worry and fear

There may be as many as 600,000 illegal immigrants in Italy; they don’t exactly announce their presence. Many live unnoticed, unremarkable lives. 

But under the new legislation, Italians must turn them over to the authorities if they try to register their children for school, or look for medical treatment. 

Abdul says he fears Italians will feel they have to turn him in if he goes to hospital

Bari Abdul arrived in Rome three years ago from Guinea and lives on the streets. We met near a soup kitchen where hot meals are handed out to others like him. 

He doesn’t speak much but is very worried about the new law.

“I can’t even go to get treatment at hospital now – the Italians there will feel they have to turn me in,” he says, ignoring the fact that he is in the country illegally.

Esquilinho is a rough neighbourhood in central Rome that is home to many immigrants.

Alphousseyn Sonko was born here. He has Senegalese parents but an Italian passport. 

Sonko believes the new law will make life tougher for people like him: “This so-called security law is more about those with papers and how they live rather than how you stop those coming across the Mediterranean Sea.”

‘Really bad law’

Mario Marazziti works for the Sant Edidio charity which offers help to those who need it – wherever they come from. For many it provides the only hot meal of the day.

In the pretty courtyard, Italians and immigrants mingle, and for a few short minutes, their lives mesh, backgrounds forgotten, their needs exactly the same.  

Mario can barely disguise his contempt for politicians.

“The so-called security law that has been just passed by the Italian parliament is a really bad law. It’s a big signal to the population; it says immigrants are a potential risk, potential criminals. The crime this law is targeting is the crime of hope and the desire for a better life,” he says.

Immigrants and immigration are not on the agenda for this week’s G8 summit in Italy.

But a number of charities and aid agencies believe that with the financial crisis and the rise of support for right-wing parties across Europe, it is one factor that will influence many of the decisions that will be made here.

“I think everyone should be allowed to walk down the street with their head held up and proud of who they are. Everybody.”

Malcolm-Che salutes Jay Phillips!!!

B.C. hate crime attack posted on YouTube

``Once they figured out they had met someone who was not afraid they didn't know what to do. They were like little hyenas trying to dart in and out to engage the lion, but they wouldn't engage me one on one.''

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/07/06/bc-courtenay-hate-crime-arrest.html

One man has been arrested and more arrests are expected, RCMP say, following a vicious assault in Courtenay, B.C., that police believe was racially motivated.

Jay Phillips was attacked Friday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant by three young men. A video of the incident posted on YouTube shows Phillips, 38, fighting back as he’s surrounded by the trio. It’s not known who shot the video or posted it on the website.

Phillips, who is black, said the attack was unprovoked.

He said a truckload of men drove by and started shouting racial epithets. “We’re going to kill you, we’re going to lynch you — really vile stuff.”

Phillips said the three men, who appear to be in their early 20s, circled back and confronted him.

The men “got out of the truck, surrounded me, still calling me names, threatening me, threatening my family, saying this is our white town and you’re not allowed here — stuff like that.

“Then they all came at me and surrounded me.”

In a news release issued Monday, police said they are reviewing video evidence and questioning witnesses, but preliminary investigation indicates there may have been a racial element in the incident.

Phillips, who said he’s the target of racism on almost a daily basis, said he felt compelled to report this incident to police.

“There’s a lot of young kids of different races in this town and they may not have been as fortunate as me and I’d like to take care of these kids,” he said.

“I think everyone should be allowed to walk down the street with their head held up and proud of who they are. Everybody.”

The prisoners in this instance did not trust authorities to handle the situation adequately, can we blame them?!  Stories come out all the time of corrections officers looking the other way as inmates die of health problems, besides the fact that they are in general totally indifferent to inmates’ suffering.  In this case the prisoners took it in their own hands, by any means necessary.

Swine flu concerns led to prison uprising

Inmates after the uprising

(NECN: Kristen Caira, Cambridge, Mass.) – A group of unruly inmates broke the sprinkler system at the Middlesex Jail in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to the county sheriff.

Officers from the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office evacuated prisoners on Sunday evening.

Over the past few days, about 12 inmates came down with flu-like symptoms. One of those 12 may have swine flu, but the others do not.

When officers were sanitizing parts of the jail, about nine inmates became unruly and caused an uprising. They broke pipes in the sprinkler system, flooding the building.

“It was an opportunity seized by a small percentage of the inmates to try to gather attention to this issue,” Sheriff DiPaola said.

Flooding occurred from the 18th floor right down to the lobby.

The fire department and NSTAR said that they were forced to shut down power to the building, forcing the evacuation of over 180 inmates.

Sheriff DiPaola said that arrangements were made to move some inmates to the Middlesex House of Correction at Billerica, Essex Sheriff’s Office, Plymouth, Dedham House of Correction, South Bay and Nashua Street, while others would remain under their control.

Dozens of officers were involved in the evacuation process. Those who caused the uprising were to face charges, Sheriff DiPaola said.

Here at  Malcolm-Che we cover a lot of prison-related things, and although it is sad that yet more corporations will profit off of prisoners and their families with this new ‘video-conference’ call station (and we’re sure it will be monopoly profits like most deals that collect-call companies use in current prisons) we still think this is a good idea because being able to actually SEE your family when you talk to them is really nice.  Is it an alternative we should be satisfied with other than having our people freed?  Hell no. 

Prison Visits Go “Pay-Per-View”

Using ATM-like kiosks developed by a Florida company, inmates at the Rockville facility are among the first whose families can link up with them from home.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/05/14/crimesider/entry5013295.shtml

MIAMI (CBS/AP) There’s still no place like home, but for the prison population, “being there” on the Web is becoming the next best thing. And prison officials say “video-conference visitation” offers benefits for inmates, family, and friends.

Almost every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Candace McCann, inmate No. 188342, sits down for a scheduled video conference with her daughter.

Seven-year-old Kashmir appears from McCann’s aunt’s home, three hours away. Sometimes Kashmir draws a picture. Other times she stands on a chair to model an outfit: jeans and a Hannah Montana T-shirt or new shoes. Lately she’s been pressing her face close to the camera and opening her mouth, showing off lost teeth.

“I feel like I’m at home, kind of,” said McCann, 24, in a video conference interview. “It’s good to see that kind of stuff.”

Home for McCann right now is a medium-security Indiana prison, where she is serving almost three years for theft and forgery. She has only seen her daughter in person three times in the last year.

But in February, the 1,200 inmates at the prison got the ability to video conference using ATM-like kiosks. Families and friends can talk from the comfort of a home office or an armchair. All they need is a webcam.

Other prisons around the country offer video visits, but families generally have to go to a site like a church to use it. At Indiana’s Rockville Correctional Facility, however, once visitors are on an approved list, they can go online from home or elsewhere and schedule and pay for their own visits. Visits cost $12.50 for 30 minutes, less than the approximately $15 the prison charges for a 30-minute local call.

Only the Rockville facility is currently using the system, developed by a Florida company called JPay. But all 28,000 Indiana inmates are expected to have access to the system within the next four years. And all Kansas inmates — just under 9,000 of them — will be able to use it by next year. JPay covers the cost of the kiosks and their installation. The states pay nothing.
Prison officials say the virtual visits can be less expensive and less time-consuming for families than driving to a faraway prison.

McCann’s mother, for example, underwent treatment for cancer and her aunt breathes with the assistance of oxygen.

McCann’s aunt, Margaret Earlywine, 69, said visiting her niece in person requires packing four canisters of oxygen and can be stressful.

The prison benefits from increased contact, too.

“When they (prisoners) have that contact with the outside family they actually behave better here at the facility,” said Richard Brown, Rockville’s assistant superintendent.

And there’s no chance inmates can get drugs or other contraband slipped to them.

Not everyone has behaved during the visits, however. In the past few months, a handful of inmates and family members have been banned from using the system for exposing themselves during a visit. The prison watches all the visits either live — like a security video — or later, when the system archives them. If there’s a problem, JPay can ban a family member or an inmate from the visits, though after the first offense inmates can get the privilege back in six months.

The prison can block visits at times when inmates have to be at meals or in bed. Inmates get notified they have a visit when they log in to the JPay kiosk. The kiosk has a screen where they can see video, a video camera to record them, and a phone they pick up to listen to the other person. It also has a keypad and built-in mouse.

The same kiosk lets inmates send and receive e-mails, something a third of federal prisons also now offer, and doubles as an ATM machine to tell them how much money they have in their accounts for spending at the prison commissary. Many inmates log in daily, even if just for a minute or two. And at Rockville, which has about one kiosk for every 75 inmates, the wait to use one is rarely long.

Inmate Deborah Reagin, 48, said her video visits have given her a chance to feel like she’s still nearby. Her daughters, Amber and Michelle, have taken her on video tours of their new homes, both purchased after she went to prison on a methamphetamine charge. Her 3-year-old grandson Khelin likes to dance for her to the song “I Like to Move It” from the movie “Madagascar.” And on Christmas, she watched him play with new toy trucks and bounce on a new trampoline.

“It makes my day a whole lot better to be able to see my family, to talk to them,” Reagin said.

She even gets to see her rat terrier, Peaches, who is living with her daughter Michelle.

“Of course they don’t allow dogs in this facility,” Reagin said, “I would never get to see her if it weren’t for these visits.”

Even so, prison video conferencing has its limitations. Conjugal visits seem beyond the reach of the new technology.

Stolen Lives group mourns victims of police shootings at Pratt University

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/28/2009-06-28_victims_of_cops_guns_mourned.html

They walked down the aisle one by one, the pain of losing a loved one to a cop’s bullet still etched on their faces.

In a somber ceremony at Brooklyn’s Pratt University on Saturday, relatives of a dozen young men gunned down by city cops received certificates from a group called Stolen Lives, an organization that compiles stories of those killed by law enforcement.

All of the victims will be included in the publication of the next edition of the Stolen Lives book.

“I feel so much better that I have someone supporting me,” said Joann Mickens, whose son, Corey, 25, was shot by NYPD officers in Harlem in 2007. “It’s letting the people know. He wasn’t a bad son. He was bettering himself.”

Carolyn Battle, 58, said she’s still consumed by rage following the death of her son, Ronald, 25.

Ronald Battle was gunned by a cop in Harlem in September 2007, she said.

“I’m angry because the people I thought were on my side are not,” Battle said. “I cried about my baby, but this is not the time to cry. The only way we will get something done is if we will keep talking about it.”

“It all begins and ends with us. If I drop the ball just because I receive a certificate, then what? It’s about what I’m going to do with it.”

Nicholas Heyward Sr., a member of Stolen Lives, said Officer Omar Edwards, who was killed by a fellow cop last month in a case of mistaken identity, will also be included in the book’s next edition.

Some people don’t even believe stuff like this happens, but let me tell you, this is as American as apple pie.  Its just very rare for one of them to get caught.  They are the most powerful gang in the streets (the cops), who is watching them?!  If it wasn’t for the club surveillance video these brothers would have probably gotten successfully framed by these cops.

NYPD officer cops a plea in drug bust

Jose (above left) and Maximo Colon were vindicated after video at a Queens bar showed Jose and his brother never having contact with the undercover cops who busted them.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/27/2009-06-27_nypd_officer_cops_a_plea_in_drug_sting_rap.html

A disgraced NYPD officer turned in his badge and pleaded guilty Friday to framing two brothers in a phony drug bust.

Police Officer Henry Tavarez, 27, of Manhattan, admitted he and Detective Stephen Anderson worked together to wrongly incriminate brothers Jose and Maximo Colon during a Jan. 5, 2008, sting inside a Queens nightclub.

They arrested the brothers on trumped up charges that the Colons sold them cocaine at the Delicias de Mi Tierra bar in Elmhurst, prosecutors said, then tried to cover their tracks by placing in evidence some of the drugs they had purchased during another bust.

Tavarez pleaded guilty to felony charges of offering a false report. As part of his plea deal, he resigned from the NYPD and could face five days in jail at sentencing.

All charges against the brothers were dropped and they have filed a federal lawsuit against the officers. Anderson resigned from the NYPD prior to the revelation. He could face up to nine years in prison, prosecutors said.