WelcomeTo My World
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Pattern of practice: Centuries of racist oppression culminating in mass incarceration
January 26, 2015
http://sfbayview.com/2015/01/pattern-of-practice-centuries-of-racist-oppression-culminating-in-mass-incarceration/
by Mutope Duguma
In 1619, the first Africans were brought to North America by force to be slaves. From 1619 to 1776, this brutal chattel slave system was able to flourish in the 13 British colonies. From 1776, the United States government would take over the reins of this land, including its brutal slave system. From 1776 to 1865, while declaring its independence from its mother country, Great Britain, on July 4, 1776, the U.S. nevertheless held onto all of its evil practices.
The so-called Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 would end slavery as we know it. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, these so-called freed slaves would be subjugated by a new system of exclusion and exploitation under the Black Codes. Instituted by the slave states as slave codes, the Black Codes effectively re-enslaved Black people identified as vagrants, replacing their freedom with forced labor.
After the brief period of Black involvement in government known as Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, Black freedom was also denied for almost 100 more years by legalized racial segregation under the Jim Crow laws. After winning their freedom in the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history, Blacks were in many cases and places denied basic human, civil and political rights: the right to vote, the right to employment, the right to freely move about, the right to own land, the right to education, the right to decent housing, the right to adequate food and clothing, the right to a fair and just judicial system and much more, literally forcing New Afrikans back into slavery by denying them a right to life. Jim Crow segregation in one form or another was practiced nationwide.
Pattern of practice
Our Afrikan ancestors were forced to make their own way, while being denied everything and subjected to vicious racist attacks by local, state and federal government officials. The state would use vagrancy laws in order to criminalize New Afrikans because they did not have a job. Unemployment was considered a violation of state law, although the same system shut them out of the job market.
Once they were convicted under the vagrancy laws, they would be off to the penitentiary, where they would be forced back into slavery, legally, under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. So the government was able to use its judicial proceedings in order to incarcerate thousands of New Afrikans under these vagrancy and Jim Crow laws in order to force them back into free slave labor, which was the government’s objective.
Pattern of practice
The struggle for civil rights in this country can easily define what I mean by pattern of practice. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, but the law still passed. It was supposed to give New Afrikans citizenship and extensive civil rights for all men born in the United States, except “Native Indians.” The Enforcement Act of 1870 was passed to re-enact the Civil Rights Act of 1866 once the 14th Amendment made its enforcement unquestionably constitutional.
Much of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was codified into federal law as Section 1983, but its influence waned as Reconstruction ended. Then the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed to outlaw discrimination in public places because of race or previous servitude. But in 1883, the act was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, which stated that the 14th Amendment, the constitutional basis of the act, protected individual rights against infringement by the states, not by other individuals.
Pattern of practice
The Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1968 were basically testaments to the consistency of a resistance struggle for civil rights in this country by New Afrikans and the countless human beings who would join in this Civil and Human Rights Movement, yet the system would continue to interfere with and obstruct the human and civil rights of New Afrikans every step of the way for over 100 years. And today we are right back where we started, fighting for our human and civil rights.
Pattern of practice
We very well could be fighting for our human and civil rights in this country as long as the Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives – the legislative branch of the United States government, continues to deny New Afrikans our human and civil rights indefinitely. Government intransigence forces New Afrikans to address this issue every 20 years or so. This is where the real injustices occur, speaking to the real racist application of such pattern of practice. Throughout our struggle, the Civil Rights Movement was and is of astronomical value in our Resistance Movement.
Brief historical perspective
It would be counterproductive not to mention Denmark Vesey, Martin Delaney and especially Marcus Garvey and the contributions he and the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) made toward our struggle for independence, which nationalized us as a people, because that organization would be the catalyst for many freedom movements to come.
The civil and human rights organizations were all instrumental in laying a foundation for more progressive struggles that would take center stage in our struggle to be liberated, starting with the Nation of Islam (NOI), the Black Liberation Movement (BLM), which would give life to the Black Panther Party (BPP), Republic of New Afrika (RNA), Black Liberation Army (BLA) and countless other revolutionary formations that would become the face of the struggle for Black liberation, i.e., freedom in Amerika.
We must begin to see these Sistas and Bruthas as our honorable men and women who have made sacrifices and continue to stand in struggle, while always remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) would be established and our struggle continue for self-determination, enabling us to govern ourselves as a New Afrikan independent nation within the borders of Amerika. New Afrikans would attempt to mobilize our people around socio-cultural, political and economic principles that speak to our humanity as a people, bringing into focus an ideology that represents the core of our identity, life style and beliefs that’s inclusive of all humanity.
The civil and human rights organizations were all instrumental in laying a foundation for more progressive struggles that would take center stage in our struggle to be liberated.
These movements would progress until the mid-1970s , when state and federal governments made a concerted effort to stamp out all New Afrikan movements. Whether they were peaceful or radical, the government would conduct a vicious campaign, where the local, state and federal law enforcement agencies would work in conjunction to murder and incarcerate any New Afrikans who dared to fight for their basic humanity and right to self-determination.
These repressive attacks by the government jeopardized our political and ideological development as a people. The brutal suppression programs waged against our people put fear in many, and the struggle for freedom had to take a back seat. To some extent, fear took the fight out of the people.
Pattern of practice: Lost communities
This would open up the floodgates to the many street vices that would be introduced and unleashed on the New Afrikan communities: extreme poverty, drugs, alcohol, police, guns, etc., etc. – all weapons of mass destruction.
At the same time, New Afrikans would move toward re-assimilation into the fabric of Amerikan society, especially the professional New Afrikans, who could provide a service that could be exploited for the interests of corporate Amerika, not the people, and many abandoned their old neighborhoods. The more economically deprived the New Afrikan community was, the more desperate it became, and it is here where all sense of community would begin to be lost – where each individual would be trying to survive at the expense of everyone else, by any means necessary.
The generations to come, from 1975 to the present, would be left to their own devices, causing many to be compromised by the very vices just spoken to.
Pattern of practice: Weapons of mass destruction
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, PCP pills and heroin were heavily pumped into our communities; in the 1980s and 1990s, it was PCP and crack cocaine; in the mid-1980s and 1990s, guns saturated our communities – every inner city ghetto and all the other residential areas largely populated by New Afrikans. Drive-by fast-food joints saturated the community, causing mass obesity; liquor stores saturated the community, causing addiction to a legal substance; toxic chemical plants saturated the community, causing all kinds of ailments. Militarized police departments saturated – and occupied – the community, murdering our children and people with impunity.
Over the years, the government declared and waged war on the New Afrikan communities: In the 1800s, it was a war on unemployed “vagrants,” where countless so-called newly freed slaves were incarcerated in order to re-enslave them under the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; in the 1970s and 1980s, it was a war on crime, and thousands of New Afrikans would be criminalized; in the 1980s and 1990s the war on drugs would be used to imprison New Afrikans at alarming rates, until 40-50 percent of the population of the prison industrial slave complex (PISC) would be New Afrikans; in the mid-1980s, 1990s and 2000s the war on gangs would be used to terrorize the New Afrikan communities, with battering rams, SWAT teams, gang injunctions, gentrification, illegal evictions and mass incarceration.
In the mid-1990s, the war on domestic terrorism would seal the fate of thousands of prisoners serving life sentences, when the then so-called first Black president, Bill Clinton, signed off on the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) that would subject thousands of poor New Afrikans to civil death.
These are all coded declarations of war on the New Afrikan people.
Pattern of practice: Economic deprivation
Government and corporate Amerika have been active participants in making sure that New Afrikans and their communities are economically deprived by refusing to keep up the property they own and control. The people who were born and raised in these communities have to watch their property values drop while they are not allowed to maintain or utilize those facilities for the interests of the community.
And when the people offer to purchase such desolate property, then the true intentions of the government and corporate owners are exposed. They attempt to hide behind some state or federal policy to explain why the property cannot be sold or given to the people to improve, or the corporate owners will attempt to place some huge, out-of-the-ordinary price on such desolate property that they have no use for, other than as an instrument to devalue the already struggling, economically deprived communities.
This is nothing but a scheme that’s been used for over a century to create poverty-stricken environments all over Amerika, especially in the New Afrikan communities.
Pattern of practice: Political prisoners
State and federal prisons hold the many New Afrikan political prisoners all over this country in solitary confinement units, where they are tortured by state and federal government workers for their political beliefs. We’re talking about the most educated of our people, kept in isolation for decades, with no end in sight for release from these state and federal torture chambers.
Many have dedicated their lives to helping improve our living conditions and empowering the people to control the socio-cultural, political and economic systems that ultimately dictate their lives. We must, as fellow humans, reach back to these men and women who have sacrificed so much.
Pattern of practice: Modern day slavery
The government deliberately calculated that building its prison industrial slave complex (PISC), which is humongous, throughout the United States in strategic areas would not only provide a surplus of modern day slaves. The new system of plantations would be welcomed into many dilapidated, economically deprived white, rural communities with its promise to create jobs – at the expense of other impoverished human beings – which has been a very clever way of laundering taxpayers’ money back into white communities. We’re talking about billions of dollars, if not trillions, over a period of time.
Pattern of practice: Main culprits
Corporate Amerika works hand in hand with the United States government against the New Afrkican community by using its institutions to carry out race and class warfare, by glamorizing on the television and in movies a malignant sub-culture that was to dehumanize, devalue, degrade and desensitize New Afrikans to the rest of the world, as well as ourselves – a marketing campaign toward our genocide. There has always been an indictment against New Afrikans in the U.S. by local, state and federal goverments that is implemented through policies and laws that can be tracked easily from 1619 to today.
The politicians who are the power brokers of this nation use the Black establishment, the Asian establishment, the Latino establishment etc. as willing participants in carrying out institutionalized racist policies that have been genocidal toward humanity.
Pattern of practice: Conclusion
There seems to be one thing that the Democrats, Republicans and Independent politicians can agree on unanimously, and that is the declaration of war against New Afrikan and other oppressed people, while depriving those humans of basic necessities, such as adequate educational institutions, adequate jobs, adequate housing, adequate food and clean water etc.
We, the people, have to address corporate and institutionalized racism if we are truly about social justice. It is the only way we can attempt to achieve something in respect to ending the prevalent injustices that plague us as humans.
One love, one struggle!
Mutope Duguma
Send our brother some love and light: Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, PBSP SHU D2-107, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.
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Freedom Archives
Freedom Archives
Action Alert - Support the Dallas 6 Prisoner Whistleblowers - trial begins Feb 17!
Please circulate widely! Click here for a printable flyer. Join other groups nationally supporting the Dallas 6, whose stand against prisoner abuse in Pennsylvania prisons is a stand against prisoner abuse everywhere. See What can you do below for how to support.
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Action Alert!!! Support
Pennsylvania Prisoner Whistleblowers
Stop the abuse and torture of prisoners!
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The Dallas 6 are six African-American prisoners in solitary confinement in SCI Dallas PA prison who blew the whistle on & peacefully protested against abuse and violence by prison guards. Four of them face trial on Feb 17 in Luzerne County (infamous for the “kids for cash” scandal) for “rioting.”
Their jury trial will begin on February 17, 2015 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
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Why support the Dallas 6?
They are whistleblowers who put their lives on the line by taking action to stop the rampant abuse and violence by guards at SCI Dallas and other PA prisons.
We all depend on prisoners like the Dallas 6 to tell the truth about our society and to defend all our civil and human rights.
They are part of a movement of prisoners taking action and speaking out through hunger and work strikes such as in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia and California.
Torture must remain illegal in this country.Charles Graner honed his torture skills in PA where he was a prison guard before moving on to Abu Ghraib. We should not have to go to Iraq to find out what is happening here, not when there are prisoners telling it like it is.
Solitary confinement is torture according to Juan Méndez, UN Special Rappateur on Torture, who has called for an absolute ban on solitary for longer than 15 days.
Mass incarceration has meant manyprisoners are inside for non-violent offenses such as minor drug convictions, immigration and parole violations & not paying fines, or are innocent of any offense. But whatever the offense, the sentence does not include torture.
Their trial is taking place in the infamous Luzerne ‘Kids for Cash’ County where judges were convicted of kickbacks for incarcerating children. Legal help is needed to navigate those dirty waters.
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What can you do?
► Help to pack the court on Feb 17.Sign up here if you are planning tocome, need or can offer transportation/ housing.
► Set up a speaking engagement for Shandre, Derrick and Isaac who give dynamic presentations (see video below).
► Help with housing, rides, food for those coming to the trial.
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Your support is needed to insure that these men receive a fair trial, that the abuses that they faced in prison do not continue, and, for the legal precedent that this court case will establish.
If the Dallas 6 are justifiably cleared of all charges Pennsylvania prisoners will be able to speak up against abuse and torture without fear of retaliation.
 Derrick Stanley of the Dallas 6 (at right) with Shandre Delaney (center), mother of Carrington Keys of the Dallas 6 and campaign coordinator | |||
For more information
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Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign: Abolitionist Law Center; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network; Fight for Lifers West; Germantown Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working Group; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – US; Human Rights Coalition – Fed Up; Human Rights Coalition – Philadelphia; Marcellus Shale Earth First; Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s network;Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee. Endorsements: Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC); Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – UK; Human Rights Defense Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish Voice For Peace - Philadelphia; Sin Barras – Without (Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz; T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare Warriors; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – Philadelphia. Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; PatriceArmstead, Building People’s Power and Coalition Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik Aziz, Founder, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon Baptist Church; Dr. Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action (for id purposes only); Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American Studies & History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University; Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College. Partnering with: AFSC Prison Watch.
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Phone: 412-403-6101 Email: sd4hrc@gmail.com Website: scidallas6.blogspot.com
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| Background | |||
Six African-American prisoners from the State Correctional Institute (SCI) in Dallas, PA are facing charges of “rioting” for blowing the whistle on the abuse of prisoners in solitary confinement.
On April 10, 2010, illegal and barbaric conditions at the hands of prison guards at SCI Dallas led these inmates, held in solitary confinement, to stage a protest. For over a year they had suffered food deprivation, destruction of mail, beatings, neglect of medical conditions, use of a torture chair and the deaths of some other prisoners, including the coerced suicide of an older white prisoner with mental health issues.
After guards kept prisoner Isaac Sanchez confined in a torture chair overnight, six protested by covering their cell door windows with their bedding. The prisoners demanded that the abuse stop, and requested access to their counselors, state police, the District Attorney and the Public Defenders’ Office. They had no access to telephones or computers and their incoming and out-going mail were being destroyed to undermine their ability to expose the corruption.
Prison guards responded with an armed assault against the unarmed men locked inside individual cells. They attacked the six men with electroshock shields, tasers, fists and pepper spray.
The guards involved suffered no injuries and initially no charges were filed against the Dallas 6, who were left bloodied, naked, burnt and in pain. Although some of the men were transferred to other prisons, they were able to file complaints and initiate civil actions against the prison guards and officials involved.
Prison officials, state police and the Luzerne County DA retaliated four months later by charging the Dallas 6 with rioting. The Dallas 6 believe that they are facing these trumped up charges because they contributed toInstitutionalized Cruelty, Human Rights Coalition Report 1, and, then subsequently stood up for their lives, which is documented in Resistance & Retaliation, Report 2.
The US has the largest prison population in the world with Black and Brown communities disproportionately impacted. Prisoners across the US are taking action and speaking out against their inhumane and tortuous conditions, including prisoner hunger and work strikes in Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia and California. As a result of their actions, prisoners areretaliated against by prison authorities. The trial of the Dallas 6 will represent a moment of truth and exposure about wide-spread use of solitary confinement and torture in prisons. We call on all who believe in justice and equality to support the Dallas 6.
SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!
Free All Political Prisoners! nycjericho@gmail.com • www.jerichony.org | |||
BILL MALONEY SPEECH TO CROWD JAN 14th 2015 - MURDERED CHILDREN,DAVID CAMERON,LEON BRITTAN,COVER-UP
fair use policy applies.Here is Bills speech to the crowd gathered on 14th January 2015,before the meeting in parliament with campaigners and survivors of child abuse.It was left out of RTs transmission-oddly enough.Also see chunky marks interview with Bill from the same day/event
When greed triumphs over civilisation.
A letter a day to number 10. No 989
Thursday 29 January 2015. When greed triumphs over civilisation.
Shares are encouraged and welcomed. If this letter speaks for you and you wish to send your own copy please feel free to copy and paste, and alter for your own needs the text for your own letter.
Website updated, letters and replies plus bonus material featuring Mr Suggs, Eeyore and Ribbit.
Also on the website, download the support compilation three album set from Atona.
http://
Dear Mr Cameron,
Humans evolved because each (healthy, unimpaired) human is capable of making, obtaining, gathering, from the incredible fecundity of nature, more than they need to live on. If that were not true we simply would not be here. With the use of tools and machinery we can produce many, many times what each individual needs to live on. In todays terms the excess from our labour is called profit.
In our world of 'work' the fruit of our labour is exchanged for a token called 'money' which is, all too often, much less than the value of our labour or what we need to live on, the profit going to the owner of the business. Profit is what is left after costs, including labour, are accounted for.
In the 'free market economy' there is no restriction on how much of the profits can be kept from us, indeed too many people are not enjoying any profit from their labour and can't make ends meet. The profits flow upwards without restraint and a small percentage of people, about 1%, grow ever richer whilst we barely plod along, struggling from week to week. Owners, CEOs, shareholders grow rich whilst ordinary people get poorer, or are merely maintained at a non-profit level of existence. That system is so deeply ingrained in our thinking and our belief structure that not only do vast numbers of people not question it, it is defended as normal. If we challenge it we are mocked and accused of being Marxists, communists, socialists, engaging in the politics of envy or just plain loonies.
Human kind evolved through cooperation, it's in our nature to do so, but a very few have exploited that through another part of our common nature, greed, and hence we have the mess that the world is in today. They don't want to share, they just want more and more and don't care at what cost they achieve that.
The mark of a civilised society is how well it looks after it's members who are vulnerable. You and your government are driving us in the very opposite direction, abandoning the poor and the vulnerable. You have created an utterly juvenile image of society as 'strivers versus skivers', with everyone in need of some support, the sick and disabled, the homeless, the unemployed, the young and old, those with degenerative diseases, all lumped in the skiver category. State barbarity is not something to be proud of, which you clearly are, it is unforgivable.
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People For Schapelle Corby # Schapelle Corby
With the Bali Two under increasing threat of being brutally shot in Indonesia, it is inevitable that the sewer of the Australian media will seek to use Schapelle Corby to draw attention from both developing events and from some of the most central facts of that case.
They, and particularly far right publishers like News Corp and the Daily Mail, will, at all costs, avoid exposing the central role of the AFP. They will publish smears, fabrications and lies, to desperately prevent scrutiny of the actual events of April 2005. The fact is that the EXACT SAME PEOPLE were involved in both selling the lives of the Bali Nine to Indonesia, and hiding the proof of Schapelle Corby’s innocence. The EXACT SAME PEOPLE, in John Howard’s corrupt government, lied, covered up and deliberately misled the public.
To prevent this uncomfortable truth emerging, which would create intense pressure on Tony Abbott, we will see a number of fictitious and fabricated articles and productions, all geared to shift attention and blame. Schapelle Corby, who has nothing to do with any of it, will again be shamelessly used and abused. She will be misrepresented, and as always, they will sneer at her innocence and censor the material which proves it. Yet again, she will be vilified and ridiculed by those who lack even a hint of integrity or decency.
For anyone who is still unaware of the nature of those who call themselves journalist in Australia, the article below was published a couple of months ago. It outlines some of the abuses and crimes perpetrated by the media against her, over the last 10 years. It is well worth reading again.
In the meantime, be prepared for another onslaught of lies, smears, censorship and abuse: of an innocent woman who cannot even answer back due to a human rights abusing gagging order. It’s obscene cowardice, but it’s what the Australian media does best.
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THE ANATOMY OF AUSTRALIAN MEDIA CRIME
In Australia, media crime isn’t limited to the lurid practices exposed by the Leveson Inquiry in the United Kingdom. Down under, it is pervasive, and thrives in a culture of sleaze, duplicity and unremitting mendacity. This becomes absolutely clear if focus is narrowed to one of that nation’s most obsessive media stories: the disturbing case of Schapelle Corby.
THE ANATOMY OF AUSTRALIAN MEDIA CRIME
In Australia, media crime isn’t limited to the lurid practices exposed by the Leveson Inquiry in the United Kingdom. Down under, it is pervasive, and thrives in a culture of sleaze, duplicity and unremitting mendacity. This becomes absolutely clear if focus is narrowed to one of that nation’s most obsessive media stories: the disturbing case of Schapelle Corby.
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MEDIA CRIME: PREJUDICIAL INCITEMENT
Incitement, prejudice, and provocation are pivotal words, particularly when set in a legal context. When used to influence those who are likely to abuse, or commit criminal offences, they often constitute criminal transgression in themselves.
MEDIA CRIME: PREJUDICIAL INCITEMENT
Incitement, prejudice, and provocation are pivotal words, particularly when set in a legal context. When used to influence those who are likely to abuse, or commit criminal offences, they often constitute criminal transgression in themselves.
Yet, in Australia, a significant number of individuals commit these infractions habitually, with absolute impunity, from under the all-embracing and protective umbrella of journalism. They abuse, they vilify, they fabricate, and they smear, witch hunting their victims without let or hindrance. In this case, the witch is a tormented and illegally gagged woman, with her family being burned for good measure.
They have proactively and relentlessly engendered and promoted hostility and hate amongst those sections of society which are most susceptible to their toxic influence. They have exposed an entire family to direct risk, and indeed, to the most offensive of online harassment and slander.
They have created an environment and culture in which real people have been dehumanised, character assassinated, and presented as legitimate targets for public contempt and animosity. They have created fear.
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MEDIA CRIME: COMPLICIT CENSORSHIP
At the same time, and on the same case, they have censored as a matter of routine, directly protecting those who are genuinely guilty of serious criminal offences from legal consequence. The misconduct and corruption of the powerful and the privileged has been buried.
MEDIA CRIME: COMPLICIT CENSORSHIP
At the same time, and on the same case, they have censored as a matter of routine, directly protecting those who are genuinely guilty of serious criminal offences from legal consequence. The misconduct and corruption of the powerful and the privileged has been buried.
Again, in a legal context, this exercise of wilful suppression also constitutes a criminal offence.
Documentation which conclusively evidences gross malversation by named politicians and AFP officers has been wilfully hidden from the public, and replaced with material which is known to be fictional and false. Schapelle Corby and her family have been ruthlessly misrepresented and smeared, whilst ministerial correspondence which directly exposes the culpable, by their own hands, remains bereft of any media coverage whatsoever.
Major developing news stories have also been suppressed. A recent example was the censorship of the findings of a Supreme Court Judge, to whom the President of Indonesia had assigned the task of reviewing the case itself. At the height of the Canberra-Jakarta spy-gate scandal, he found that Schapelle Corby should never have been convicted, and made a number of serious allegations relating to the AFP.
The mainstream media in Australia refused to report any of this. Once again, an enormous story, of long-term national significance, was censored completely.
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MEDIA CRIME: HUMAN RIGHTS & PRIVACY ABUSES
The human rights and privacy abuses perpetrated by Australian journalists against Schapelle Corby herself have been documented on a number of occasions. Within the confines of the prison she was exploited repeatedly at the behest of the Australian media. Often, she was forcibly displayed for public curiosity, and denied even the pretence of privacy, with fellow prisoners paid large sums to fabricate and take photographs of her. For a period, even her movements within her oppressive cell were secretly recorded on a hidden camera.
MEDIA CRIME: HUMAN RIGHTS & PRIVACY ABUSES
The human rights and privacy abuses perpetrated by Australian journalists against Schapelle Corby herself have been documented on a number of occasions. Within the confines of the prison she was exploited repeatedly at the behest of the Australian media. Often, she was forcibly displayed for public curiosity, and denied even the pretence of privacy, with fellow prisoners paid large sums to fabricate and take photographs of her. For a period, even her movements within her oppressive cell were secretly recorded on a hidden camera.
Following her release on parole, she has been harassed and stalked, with even the private details of her parole interviews being reported nationally.
In another disturbing development, Australian journalists have proactively and repeatedly pressed Indonesian officials on the most untenable of false rumours and scenarios, creating significant pressure to withdraw her parole status. Routine concessions which are granted to every paroled prisoner, have been endlessly questioned in her case, and only her case.
Following relentless and unprecedented media exhortation, she has also been gagged: her human right to free speech has been revoked. If she exposes the corruption identified in Canberra, or the media crimes perpetrated against her, she will be re-imprisoned for a further three years. If her sister, Mercedes Corby, speaks, then likewise Schapelle Corby will be re-imprisoned for three years.
It should equally be noted that her own government support and endorse this ongoing abuse, with not a word of protest spoken from Canberra. She has nowhere to turn.
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MEDIA CRIME: ILLEGAL INTRUSION
In Australia itself, Schapelle Corby’s family has been subjected to an unmitigated campaign of intrusion and privacy breach. Phone hacking, the placement of recording-bugs, hidden GPS devices, and other illegal activities have been revealed. Even supporters have been targeted.
MEDIA CRIME: ILLEGAL INTRUSION
In Australia itself, Schapelle Corby’s family has been subjected to an unmitigated campaign of intrusion and privacy breach. Phone hacking, the placement of recording-bugs, hidden GPS devices, and other illegal activities have been revealed. Even supporters have been targeted.
Members of the public have been offered extreme inducements to fabricate and support the most damaging of fiction. Others have been threatened and intimidated. Genuine fear has been engendered.
Again, politicians remain aloof and disinterested, refusing even the courtesy of a response to a multitude of complaints and cries for help.
Again, politicians remain aloof and disinterested, refusing even the courtesy of a response to a multitude of complaints and cries for help.
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ABOVE THE LAW: THE SHIELD OF IMPUNITY
This litany of malfeasance is neither theory nor allegation. It is self-evident to anyone who cares to examine the material retrieved from across Canberra’s cumbersome departments and institutions. The cache of internal cables and transcripts have been published on the website of The Expendable Project. It is there to see. The endless flow of media abuse has been meticulously recorded and archived, with many examples openly documented on the same website.
There is no scope for doubt about any of the above.
ABOVE THE LAW: THE SHIELD OF IMPUNITY
This litany of malfeasance is neither theory nor allegation. It is self-evident to anyone who cares to examine the material retrieved from across Canberra’s cumbersome departments and institutions. The cache of internal cables and transcripts have been published on the website of The Expendable Project. It is there to see. The endless flow of media abuse has been meticulously recorded and archived, with many examples openly documented on the same website.
There is no scope for doubt about any of the above.
Yet the perpetrators remain unchallenged and at liberty. They hide behind a badge of convenience, demeaning the term journalism, and exploiting the notion of a free press. They are protected by multiple veneers of deceit and self-interest.
Instead of being arrested, charged and jailed, on social media they openly back-slap and congratulate each other on their latest slurs, abuses, and acts of flagrant censorship. They sneer, and ridicule members of the public who dare to approach them asking for honest journalism.
These individuals are allowed to disturb the moral compass of society itself. Their position enables them to exert a toxic influence which is unfettered and unrestrained. They are allowed a free reign to commit what are, in any other context, criminal acts against both individuals and society as a whole.
This situation is fully sanctioned by editors, media proprietors and politicians, not only with respect to the Schapelle Corby case, but more generally.
Whether this is collectively referred to as media crime or another term, it is well past the time that society addressed it, and called those responsible to account. They cannot, as individuals, be placed above laws which other citizens would be imprisoned for breaking.
Until these fundamental issues of restraint and integrity are confronted, the media will continue to be a scourge on Australian society rather than a safeguard of democracy. It will continue to stain the reputation of journalists and publishers globally.
Full story with references here:
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=634174
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=634174
All you need to know about the Australian media:
http://www.expendable.tv/p/media.html
http://www.expendable.tv/p/media.html
American dreams denied to "convicts" w/ The Evergreen Empowerment Group
Tonight on New Abolitionists Radio we will be joined by Mr. Corwin Scott and Ms. Valarie C. Clark of The Evergreen Empowerment Group (EEG) which is a non-profit organization-pioneering program that contributes to the community by assisting low-income citizens, military, various social classes and ethnicities with resource information of the legal system. According to them, "American citizens are being held back from pursuing the American dream because of criminal convictions. These convictions prevent some citizens from obtaining gainful employment, safe and affordable housing for their families, and perpetuate social stigmas that follow convicts." In the news,
- Chicago brothers who infiltrated Sinaloa cartel given 14 years in prison, DEA Head who allowed smuggling still in position
- 5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million
- The GEO Group Announces Acquisition of Eight Correctional and Detention Facilities Totaling More Than 6,500 Beds
- On Hynes’s tab: Former DA’s critics predict 100s of millions for wrongful convictions
Our abolitionist in profile is Charles Lenox Remond, February 1, 1810 – December 22, 1873, Orator and Abolitionist.
Monday, 26 January 2015
Dean - homeless and disabled living on the streets of London
We are trying to raise the funds to keep Dean off the streets and help facilitate his move into the correct supported home for him. A lot of charities and authorities have let him down, so we are trying to do this the old fashioned way! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ho...
CEDP] Call for Rodney Reed is tonight --and important correction
forward widely....
STOP THE EXECUTION OF RODNEY REED, TEST ALL THE DNA, BLACK LIVES MATTER!
JOIN US -- CALL IS TONIGHT! 7pm Central --- that’s * correction *— 8pm in NY, and 5pm in CA
We are holding a national conference call to leverage our voice to stop this injustice from going forward.
Rodney is scheduled to be executed on March 5th, so time is of the essence. We are asking everyone, if they haven’t already, to read up about the case.
On the call we will not have time to go into the history of the case, we now need to turn our attention on ACTION.
MONDAY
JANUARY 26TH
7PM CENTRAL TIME (that’s 8pm in NY and 5pm in Cal)
CALL in #712-432-0460
ACCESS CODE 152872#
(Please email me back if haven’t already to let me know that you will be on the call, marlene@nodeathpenalty.org and indicate what state you are from and what organization you are affiliated with if any, thank you)
Below are links to learn more about the case.
AGENDA FOR CALLMessage from Rodney’s brother Roderick ---- 5 mins
Legal update from Rodney’s lawyer Bryce Benjet -- 15 mins (limited discussion)
Report back and upcoming actions in Texas, Randi Jones Hensley ---10 mins (no discussion)
What can people do — film screenings, how to use clemency letter, other ideas, Randi to kick it off--- 45 mins (includes discussion)
Media work, Liliana --- 30 mins (includes discussion)
Next upcoming call — 5 mins
IT MATTERS WHAT WE DO! We stopped the execution of Kevin Cooper in California just hours before it was scheduled and we stopped the execution of Kenny Foster in Texas in 2009, also hours before it was to take place.
We need all hands on deck to push this case outward and shine a blinding light on Texas to STOP this execution, allow DNA testing, and set Rodney FREE!
BACKGROUND ON THE CASERodney, who is black, was tried by an all white jury for the killing of 19 year old Stacey Stites who was engaged to be married to a Giddings police officer, Jimmy Fennel. The only evidence linking Rodney to the crime was semen taken from Stacey’s body. But witnesses say Rodney and Stacey were having a sexual relationship — and many of them were prepared to testify at his trial but were not called.
There are many other troubling aspects to this case:
*During the initial investigation the main suspect, Jimmy Fennel, was asked on a polygraph test, “Did you strangle Stacey Stites?” and he failed it, TWICE.
*Police failed to search Stacey and Fennel’s apartment, the last place she was known to be alive.
*Police released the truck Stacey was driving the night of the murder to Fennel who sold the truck days later
*Two beer cans found at the scene of the crime have DNA that cannot rule out, David Hall, a good friend and co-worker (cop) of Fennel’s.
LEARN MORE AT NODEATHPENALTY.ORG <http://NODEATHPENALTY.ORG>
RECENT PIECE BY JORDAN SMITH POSTED AT THE INTERCEPT <https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/11/17/is-texas-getting-ready-kill-innocent-man/>
,
While at The Austin Chronicle she wrote a series of articles here <http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Archive/search?Search=Rodney+Reed&Sort=1&sent=1&Section=73712&OldSearch=Rodney+Reed> .
Read and share the recent New Abolitionist article <http://nodeathpenalty.org/new_abolitionist/may-2014-issue-61/texas-death-row-two-cases-injustice> about the case
Saturday, 24 January 2015
The sadistic pleasure in attacking the poor.
A letter a day to number 10. No 985
Sunday 25 January 2015. The sadistic pleasure in attacking the poor.
Shares are encouraged and welcomed. If this letter speaks for you and you wish to send your own copy please feel free to copy and paste, and alter for your own needs the text for your own letter.
Website updated, letters and replies plus bonus material featuring Mr Suggs, Eeyore and Ribbit.
Also on the website, download the support compilation three album set from Atona.
Dear Mr Cameron,
Ukip candidate, Lynton Yates, talking about the poor this week said, "Why do they have the privilege to spend the tax payers hard earned money on a car, when those in work are struggling to keep their own car on the road?" John Harris, writing in the Guardian, had this to say in response, "...there is a sadism at the heart of the Yates idea that is not a million miles away from the cruelties increasingly built into the benefits system: cruelties most of us would not put up with for a minute, but which are visited on thousands of people every week."
Harris is absolutely right, there is a casual but brutal sadism underpinning what Yates said and the entire benefit system and sanctions regime. Why should the poor have anything?
When David Freud said, "people who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest risks as they have the least to lose", he was saying that it is perfectly alright for the poor to have less, demonstrating complete disdain for the brutality and violence that is what poverty is.
During the parliamentary debate on food banks Tory MPs mocked and jeered so loudly that the stories of hardship being suffered across the country were almost drowned out. The motion calling on the government to reduce dependency on food bank was defeated by 294 votes to 251. Every MP who voted against the motion was saying that it is just fine for people to be so poor they cannot afford to buy food. Esther McVey falsely blaming Labour for the economic crisis said, "In the UK it is right that more people are... going to food banks because as times are tough, we are all having to pay back this £1.5 trillion debt personally which spiralled under Labour, we are all trying to live within our means, change the gear and make sure that we pay back all our debt which happened under them.
McVey, who doesn't appear to be suffering any hardship what so ever, believes that the those living in abject poverty should pay back a debt which they had no part in creating. The debt is not 'ours' as McVey would have it, it was forced on the nation to bail out the criminal banks who have continued to reward themselves lavishly for their crimes.
All of this amounts to an orchestrated campaign of sadistic brutality towards poor people from which those who are perpetrating it derive a sadistic and malicious pleasure. Special mention must be made, however, of your claim that you can "slash spending by £30billion without inflicting any pain", demonstrating that for you the poor are entirely discounted and invisible, including our mounting dead.
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