MLK Injustice Index 2011: Racism, Materialism and Militarism in the US

By Bill Quigley
“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values… when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967

As we remember the courage and hope of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we must not forget that he spoke out and worked against the injustices of our nation, particularly those of racism, materialism and militarism. Indeed that is what made him so hated and so dangerous when he was alive.

We have achievements to celebrate: the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell;” the release of San Suu Kyi in Burma; the enactment of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights by the NY legislature that extends important labor rights to 200,000 nannies and housekeepers; the victories of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; and the exposure of secret US and other country machinations by Wikileaks, among others.

There has been progress in dismembering the laws of segregation which divided our country. We must celebrate the successes that many struggled to achieve. However, as we celebrate those victories let us not lose sight of the challenges still facing this country.

Here are some of the facts about racism, materialism and militarism in the US which we should reflect on as we decide how best to carry on the radical struggle for justice of Dr. King. (For each fact, I provide a brief cite to the sources which are listed at the end of the article).

Let us renew our commitment to the radical revolution of values for which Dr. King gave his life as we turn to the realities of current life.

Racism: Health, Housing, Income and Jobs

Infants born to black women are 1.5 to 3 times more likely to die than infants born to women of all other races or ethnicities. Black men and women are much more likely to die of heart disease and stroke than their white counterparts. Hypertension is by far most prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks (42% vs. 29% among whites). Uninsured persons are only about half as likely to have hypertension under control as those with insurance. Source: Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Twenty-five percent of black workers and forty-three percent of Hispanic workers do not have health insurance, compared to fifteen percent of white workers. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

Overall, sixteen percent of all whites, twenty-one percent of blacks and thirty-two percent of Hispanics do not have health insurance. Source: Census

Housing

In cities with large African American populations, black segregation looks pretty much the same as it did 40 years ago; Hispanic segregation is on the rise. Source: Princeton

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the crisis in subprime mortgages in minority neighborhoods was not the result of riskier lending spurred by the Community Reinvestment Act or a decline in underwriting standards. Source: Princeton

Even with similar qualities (credit profiles, down payment ratios, personal characteristics, and residential locations) African Americans were more likely to receive subprime loans. Similarly blacks and Hispanics were significantly more likely than whites to receive loans with unfavorable terms such as prepayment penalties. The result: from 1993 to 2000, the share of subprime mortgages going to households in minority neighborhoods rose from 2 to 18 percent. Source: Princeton

Because predatory lenders could efficiently target entire minority neighborhoods with subprime mortgages, larger numbers of people were affected than would have had they been more geographically spread out. In true layman’s terms, it was like “shooting fish in a barrel.” Segregated neighborhoods just made it too easy to engage large numbers of people in this devastating scheme and this multiplied the effect of the crisis. Source: Princeton

Black middle class families have been stripped of more wealth by the real estate and foreclosure crisis than any single event in US history. Due entirely to subprime loans, black borrowers are expected to lose between $71 billion and $92 billion. Source: Devona Walker

Income and Jobs

Median household income for white families is $51,861, for black families is $32,584, and for Hispanic is it $38,039. Source: Census

The Immigration and Enforcement Agency is on pace to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, more under the current administration than any before. Source: Slevin

The overall unemployment rate among whites is 8.5% and among blacks it is 15.8%. For white teenagers the unemployment rate is 22% and among blacks it is 44%. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Materialism: Inequality and Poverty

The top 25 hedge fund managers were paid on average, more than $1 billion each in 2009. Source: Schwartz, New York Times.

Between 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of all income growth in the US went to the top 1 percent of the population; that top 1 percent also held a larger share of income than any time since 1928, according to economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty. Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

There are 43 million people in the US living under the official poverty line. While there are more white people living in poverty (30 million) than black (10 million) and Hispanic (12 million) poor combined, the poverty rate for whites of 12% is significantly less than the 26% rate for blacks and the 25% rate for Hispanics. Source: Census

The bottom 20% of the US population have negative wealth, they owe more than the value of all their assets. From 20 to 40th percentile, the next 20% of the population, average about $5,000 in wealth. The middle 20%, from the 40 to 60th percentile, own $65,000 in assets. The next highest 20%, the 60 to 80th percentile, are worth about $208,000. From 80 to 90th, the average wealth is $477,000. From 90 to 95th, the wealth is $908,000 in assets. From 95 to 99th is $2,734,000 in wealth assets. And the top 1%? $13,977,000 in average wealth. Source: State of Working America

Since the economic recession started there has been a 25% rise in the number of people “doubling up” in housing by moving in with others, there has been a rise in the number of homeless families, and in not one of the 50 states can a person working full-time at one minimum wage afford a two bedroom apartment for his or her family. Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Militarism: Troops, Expenditures and Arms Sales

The US reports it has 1.4 million people in active military service in 143 countries around the world. The top places for US military are: Afghanistan (105,900), Iraq (96,200), Germany (53,951), and Japan (34,385). Source: Department of Defense

There are an additional 819,000 people in the Reserve and National Guard and another 709,000 civilian personnel. Source: 2011 Census Statistical Abstract, Table 506.

The US spent $774 billion directly on its military budget in 2010. The Department of Defense budget was over $660 billion, counting the special expenditures for Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Department of Veterans Affairs was $114 billion for 2010.

The US spends much more on its military than any other country in the world. Military spending has increased by 75% since the year 2000 and represents about $2100 for every person in the US. Excluding expenditures for veterans the US military budget in 2009 was over $660 billion. In second place globally was China at about $100 billion. France was third at $63 billion, the UK next with $58 billion and Russia in 5th place spending $53 billion. In fact the US spends more on military than the rest of the top 10 countries in the world put together. Source: SIPRI

The US also leads the world in the sale of lethal weapons to others, selling about one of every three weapons worldwide. The USA’s major clients are South Korea, Israel and United Arab Emirates. Source: SIPRI

The US continues to hold 174 people in indefinite and illegal detention in Guantanamo despite global calls for closure. Thirty eight of those still being held have won their habeas corpus petitions in front of federal judges but still have not been freed. Source: Miami Herald.

The US continues to launch remote controlled unmanned predator drones into Pakistan, a country we are not even at war with. In 2010, US drones struck Pakistan 118 times killing many civilians. Source: New America Foundation

The number of deaths in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are difficult to calculate since the US only counts US deaths. The US reports 1277 US military have died in Afghanistan and 4427 died in Iraq. The Iraq Body Count estimates between 99,357 and 108,475 civilians have died in violence associated with the war in Iraq. Source: iraqbodycount.org.

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates that the total cost of the Iraq war to the US is more than $3 trillion. For this estimate he calculated the actual military costs, the cost of treating and compensating disabled veterans, a $10 increase in the price of oil (the increase in the price of oil went from $25 a barrel when the US invaded Iraq to as high as $140 a barrel in 2008), the increase in the federal debt and the borrowing that demanded. Source: Stiglitz

Conclusion

As we celebrate the life of Dr. King, let us realize the challenges that still face those who seek a world of justice and peace. He showed us that anger at injustice can be combined with courage to create real hope for a better world. Let us address the injustices of continuing racism, materialism and militarism with the courage and hope that Dr. King displayed in his brief life.

SOURCES:

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Economic News Release, January 7, 2011, Table A-2.

Census: US Census, Income Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the US 2009.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Top 1 percent of Americans Reaped Two Thirds of Income Gains in Last Economic Expansion.”

CDC: Centers for Disease Control Health Disparities and Inequalities
Report, US 2011.

Department of Defense: Active Military Personnel, September 30, 2010.

James Glanz: “The Economic Cost of War,” NYT, 2-28-09.

Kaiser: Health Insurance Coverage in America, 2009, Kaiser Family Foundation.

Miami Herald: Guantanamo by the Numbers. 12-26-10.
National Low Income Housing Coalition: Out of Reach 2010.

New America Foundation: The Year of the Drone: An analysis of US drone strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2011.

2010 Princeton study: “Racial Segregation and the American Foreclosure Crisis,” Jacob Rugh and Douglass Massey.

Nelson Schwartz and Louise Story: “Pay of Hedge Fund Managers Roared Back Last year,” New York Times, March 31, 2010.

SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute:
Military expenditures: News Release June 2, 2010.
Sale of weapons by US: 2009 Yearbook.

Peter Slevin: “Deportation of Illegal Immigrants increases under Obama Administration,” Washington Post, 7-26-10.

Economic Policy Institute: State of Working America.
Joseph Stiglitz and Linda J. Blimes: “The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond,” Washington Post, 9-5-10.

Devona Walker: “Foreclosures are destroying the Black Middle Class.”

Bill is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com.

Million Plus Remain Homeless and Displaced in Haiti: One Year After Quake

By Bill Quigley and Jeena Shah
One year after the January 12 2010 earthquake, more than a million people remain homeless in Haiti. Homemade shelters and tents are everywhere in Port au Prince. People are living under plastic tarps or sheets in concrete parks, up to the edge of major streets, in the side streets, behind buildings, in between buildings, on the sides of hills, literally everywhere.

UNICEF estimates that more than 1 million people – 380,000 of them children – still live in displacement camps.

“The recovery process” as UNICEF says, “is just beginning.”

One of the critical questions is how many people remain without adequate housing. While there are fewer big camps of homeless and displaced people, there has been extremely little rebuilding. The UN reported that 97,000 tents have been provided since the quake. Tents are an improvement over living under a sheet but they are not homes. Many families have lived many places in the last year circulating from rough shelters to tents to camps to other camps to
living alongside other families.

It is important to understand that families may leave the huge unsupervised camps and still be homeless someplace else – like a tent in another part of the city or country. Moving from one type of homelessness to another cannot be allowed to be declared progress against homelessness and displacement.

The key human rights goal is housing, not moving out of the displacement camps.

One illustration of the housing challenge facing the Haitian people can be found in a recent report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The IOM December report announced a reduction in the number of persons remaining in displacement camps. The IOM then wrongly concluded that the number of people displaced and homeless was reduced accordingly. Why is this conclusion wrong? Because the IOM report does not even try to track where displaced persons go after they leave a particular camp. They equate homeless families moving out of displacement camps as families finding housing.

These types of erroneous conclusions are not only misleading but threaten to hinder badly needed relief efforts one year after Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

Careful consideration of the IOM report provides an opportunity to examine some of the many important housing challenges still facing Haitians.

IOM Assertion: “We finally start to see light at the end of the tunnel for the earthquake-affected population…these are hopeful signs that many victims of the quake are getting on with their lives.” IOM reported there has been a 31% decrease in the number of internally displaced people living on IDP sites in Haiti since July.

Fact: Getting on with their lives? Of an estimated 1,268 displacement camps, at least 29% have been forcibly closed – meaning tens of thousands of people have been evicted, often through violent means. Many who are forcibly evicted from one site move on to set up camp for their families in another location, which is often more dangerous. This is not getting on with life; this is searching for less dangerous places for the family tent.
IOM Assertion: People with houses labeled red (uninhabitable or extremely dangerous) or yellow (in need of repair) have “chosen to return to the place of origin or nearby to establish a shelter.”

Fact: As of December 16, 2010, only 2,074 of the estimated 180,000 destroyed houses had been repaired and a small percentage of rubble had been cleared. Decisions by desperate homeowners to move back into still destroyed homes is hardly progress.

It is also not even possible for large numbers of people who were renters to return to their destroyed homes. The destruction of more than 180,000 private residences coupled with influx of international aid workers has made Haiti’s rental market soar. An estimated 80% of those rendered homeless by the earthquake were renters or occupiers of homes without any formal land title. Current rents are unreachable by the majority of displaced Haitians, many of whom who lost their means of livelihood during the earthquake. The IOM admits “The lack of land tenure and the destruction of many houses in already congested slums left many of those displaced with few options but to remain in shelters.”

IOM Assertion: “Some households rendered homeless after the earthquake left congested Port au Prince all-together going home to the regions. Others sent their children to the countryside for a better life.”

Fact: Rural Haiti before the earthquake was home to 52% of the population, 88% of which was poor and 67% was extremely poor. Rural residents had a per capita income one third of the income of people living in urban areas and extremely limited access to basic services. Disaster response following the earthquake has not tackled the extreme structural violence that exists in rural areas, and Hurricane Tomas further destroyed livelihoods of rural communities. People moving from displacement camps in the city to living in a tent in the countryside have not really moved out of homelessness, they have just moved.

IOM Assertion: “Surviving in poor living conditions during the long hurricane season has persuaded many to seek alternative housing solutions.”

Fact: Homeless people are always seeking “alternative housing solutions.” Camp conditions even before Hurricane Tomas and the cholera outbreak revealed that displaced Haitians were in camps because they had no “alternative housing solutions.” According to a study conducted by CUNY Professor Mark Schuller before both Hurricane Tomas and the outbreak of cholera, 40% of displacement camps did not have access to water, and 30% did not have toilets of any kind. Only 10% of families even had a tent, many of which were ripped beyond repair during the hurricane season; the rest were sleeping under tarps or even bed sheets. A study conducted even earlier by the Institute of Justice & Democracy in Haiti found that 78% of families lived without enclosed shelter; 44% of families primarily drank untreated water; 27% of families defecated in a container, a plastic bag, or on open ground in the camps; and 75% of families had someone go an entire day without eating during one week and over 50% had children who did not eat for an entire day.

Human rights promise housing, not just forcing people away from displacement camps. Haiti needs practical and sustainable solutions for re-housing along with services and protections for the people still homeless.

One year later, it is critically important for the international community to assist Haitians to secure real housing. The million homeless Haitians and the hundreds of thousands who have moved out of the large homeless camps into other areas are our sisters and brothers and still need our solidarity and help.

Bill is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and a long-time Haiti advocate. Jeena Shah is a lawyer serving in Port au Prince as a Lawyers’ Earthquake Response Network Fellow with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Contact Bill at quigley77@gmail.com and Jeena at Jeena@ijdh.org.

Rapides Parish Jail Seeks Expansion That WIll Make it Largest Per Capita Jail in the State

From our friends at ACLU of Louisiana:

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a public records request with Rapides Parish Sheriff Charles F. Wagner, Jr., seeking disclosure of the study and supporting data that some Rapides Parish officials tout as supporting expansion of the Rapides Parish Jail. By building cells for more than 500 new detainees, the proposed expansion would increase the Parish’s incarceration rate to 937 prisoners per 100,000 members of the population—higher than any other parish whose incarceration rate has been publicly disclosed, including Orleans Parish’s rate of 893 prisoners per 100,000.

“Before Rapides Parish commits itself to a massive, expensive, and unnecessary expansion of its detention facilities, the public at least deserves access to the same information that Parish officials are using to justify their recommendations,” said Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “If this expansion goes forward, then Rapides Parish would end up with the highest incarceration rate in Louisiana. This is not a burden to take on blindly, especially in light of the costs involved.”

New Orleans recently put the brakes on a similar expansion. There, the mayor appointed a blue ribbon commission that retained a nationally-renowned criminal justice expert to help them identify an optimal size for the Orleans Parish Prison. That expert found that by implementing cost-effective, public safety-enhancing reforms that local advocates and other experts have long advocated, Orleans Parish could meet all of the city’s reasonable detention needs with fewer than half of the beds the Parish currently operates.

Esman said, “As the example of New Orleans shows, putting smarter criminal justice policies in place can avoid unnecessary incarceration, all while increasing public safety and saving taxpayer dollars. The people of Rapides Parish deserve to have a full, open debate about whether expanding the jail is what best serves their needs.”

A copy of the public records request is available at the ACLU of Louisiana website.

Guns and Terrorism: Two Unasked Question in Tucson Mass Murder

By Bill Quigley
Question: How does a mentally unstable man who was kicked out of school and had run-ins with the law buy an assault weapon?

The weapon reportedly used in the mass murders in Tucson was an assault weapon - a Glock 19, semi-automatic pistol, with an extended magazine. That weapon was illegal to sell in the US from 1994 to 2004 under the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. It is now legal to sell and own. The National Rifle Association reports there are tens of millions of assault weapons is private hands in the US.

The federal background check for people purchasing such weapons only prohibits selling such weapons to people who have been legally determined to be mentally defective or found insane or convicted of crimes. This man had not been found legally mentally defective or convicted so he was legally entitled to purchase an assault weapon. In Arizona he was legally entitled to carry the weapon in a concealed manner.

The US has well over 250 million guns in private hands according to the National Rifle Association. That is more, according to the BBC, than any country in the world. In one year, guns murdered 17 people in Finland, 35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States according to the Brady Campaign.

Does the US really need tens of millions of assault weapons and hundreds of millions of other guns? We already put more of our people in prison than any country in the world and we spend more on our military than all the rest of the world together. How fearful must we be?

Question: Why is there so little talk of terrorism?

Apparently when a mentally unstable white male is accused, terrorism is not the first thing that comes to mind.

When Clay Duke, a white male, threatened Florida school board members with a gun and shot at them before shooting himself, in December 2010, he was mentally imbalanced.

When Michael Enright, a white male, was arrested for slashing the throat of a Muslim NYC cab driver in August of 2010, his friends said he had a drinking problem.

When Byron Williams, a white male, was arrested after opening fire on police officers and admitted he was on his way to kill people at offices of a liberal foundation and a civil liberties organization, in July 2010, he was an unemployed right wing felon with a drinking problem.

When Joe Stack, a white male, flew his private plane into a federal building in Austin, Texas, in February 2010, he was angry with the IRS.

When a white male is accused of mass murder, terrorism is not much talked of rather it becomes a terrible tragedy but not one where race or ethnicity or religion need be examined.

Now, if the accused had been Muslim, does anyone doubt whether this would have been considered an act of terrorism? US Muslims could have expected increased surveillance and harassment at home and the places where they work and worship. They could have expected a Congressional inquiry into the radicalization of their people. Oh, Representative Peter King (R-NY) has already started that one!

Bill is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Contact Bill at quigley77@gmail.com.

Disaster Profiteers Continue to Seek Wealth in Haiti's Suffering

As Haiti approaches the one-year anniversary of their massive earthquake, the country is still in crisis. It’s clear that – as with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - much of the promised relief and reconstruction aid has not reached those affected by the disaster.

The details of a recent lawsuit, as reported by Business Week, shed some light on the ways in which contractors – including many of the same players who profited off of Katrina-related reconstruction – have continued to use their political connections to gain profits at the expense of those most in need, receiving contacts worth tens of millions of dollars while the Haitian people receive pennies at best.

Lewis Lucke, a 27-year veteran of the US Agency for International Development (US AID) was named US special coordinator for relief and reconstruction after the earthquake. He worked this job for a few months, then immediately moved to the private sector, where he could sell his contacts and connections to the highest bidder. He quickly got a $30,000-a-month (plus bonuses) contract with the Haiti Recovery Group (HRG). HRG was the name adopted by Ashbritt, Inc., a Florida-based contractor who had received acres of bad press for their post-Katrina contracting. Ashbritt’s partner in HRG is the GB Group, a conglomerate run by one of Haiti's wealthiest men, Gilbert Bigio.

Although Lucke received $60,000 for two months work, he is suing because he says he is owed an additional $500,000 for the more than 20-million dollars in contracts he helped HRG obtain during that time.

Ashbritt CEO Randal Perkins is a major donor to Republican causes, and hired Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s firm, as well as former FEMA chief Mike Parker, as lobbyists. As a reward for his political connections, Ashbritt won 900 million dollars in Post-Katrina contracts, helping them to become the poster child for political corruption in the world of disaster profiteering, even triggering a congressional investigation focusing on their buying of influence. MSNBC reported in early 2006 that criticism of Ashbritt “can be heard in virtually every coastal community between Alabama and Texas.”

The contracts given to Bush cronies like Ashbritt resulted in local and minority-owned companies losing out on reconstruction work. As Multinational Monitor noted shortly after Katrina, “by turning the contracting process over to prime contractors like Ashbritt, the Corps and FEMA have effectively privatized the enforcement of Federal Acquisition Regulations and disaster relief laws such as the Stafford Act, which require contracting officials to prioritize local businesses and give 5 percent of contracts to minority-owned businesses. As a result…early reports suggest that over 90 percent of the $2 billion in initial contracts was awarded to companies based outside of the three primary affected states, and that minority businesses received just 1.5 percent of the first $1.6 billion.”

As Corpwatch has reported, AshBritt “has enjoyed meteoric growth since it won its first big debris removal subcontract from none other than Halliburton, to help clean up after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.” In 1999, the company also faced allegations of double billing for $765,000 from the Broward County, Florida school board for clean-up done in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma.

This massive disaster profiteering exemplified by Ashbritt is not just the result of sloppy and quick decision-making in the midst of a crisis, or work given to large companies with the most experience. These contracts are awarded as part of a corporate agenda that sees disaster as an opportunity, and in fact a tool for furthering policies that would not be possible in other times. Journalist and author Naomi Klein exposed evidence that within 24 hours of the earthquake, the influential right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation was already seeking to use the disaster as an attempt at further privatization of the country's economy.

Haitian poet and human rights lawyer Ezili Dantò has written, "Haiti's poverty began with a US/Euro trade embargo after its independence, continued with the Independence Debt to France and ecclesiastical and financial colonialism. Moreover, in more recent times, the uses of U.S. foreign aid, as administered through USAID in Haiti, basically serves to fuel conflicts and covertly promote US corporate interests to the detriment of democracy and Haitian health, liberty, sovereignty, social justice and political freedoms. USAID projects have been at the frontlines of orchestrating undemocratic behavior, bringing underdevelopment, coup d'etat, impunity of the Haitian Oligarchy, indefinite incarceration of dissenters, and destroying Haiti's food sovereignty essentially promoting famine."

Jeremy Scahill and Bill Quigley both commented on the ways Haiti and Katrina both served as staging grounds for increased involvement of mercenaries in reconstruction efforts. As one Blackwater mercenary told Scahill when he visited New Orleans in the days after Katrina, "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations." It's likely we haven't seen the last of Ashbritt either.

Photo Above: Randal Perkins, CEO of AshBritt.

Wheelchair-Bound Man Denied Basic Medical Care at Iberia Parish Correctional Center

From our friends at ACLU of Louisiana:
Seeking immediate help for a disabled man held since April in inhumane conditions at the Iberia Parish Correctional Center (“ICC”), the ACLU of Louisiana today submitted an emergency second request for relief on his behalf. Reginald Peters, who requires a wheelchair due to his muscular dystrophy and needs assistance for basic bodily functions, has been denied adequate medical care, forcing him to lie on the ground, unable to perform basic tasks such as going to the bathroom.

On November 29, 2010, the ACLU of Louisiana submitted an Administrative Remedy Procedure (“ARP”) on his behalf, demanding that he be moved to another prison facility with adequate medical care. Although prison officials promised to move Mr. Peters to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center for better care, Mr. Peters remains at ICC and his condition has worsened. He remains unable to attend to his basic bodily functions, must lie on the floor, and his muscles have continued to deteriorate. Today the ACLU submitted an Emergency Second Step ARP, as a step toward litigation if Mr. Peters is not transferred promptly.

“For over a month, officials in Iberia Parish have been on notice that they are forcing a disabled man to lie on the ground, without a mattress, unable to take care of his basic bodily needs,” said Katie Schwartzmann, Legal Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “Mr. Peters has been forced to live under conditions that can truly be described as inhumane. He is forced to ask other prisoners to help him with basic needs like going to the bathroom or taking a bath. There is no excuse for denying basic medical care, or for the needless delay in transferring him to a facility where he can receive better care. Nobody should be subjected to the treatment that Mr. Peters has received in this jail.”

Schwartzmann and other ACLU staff members have made several trips to Iberia Parish Correctional Center to investigate Mr. Peters’ case. Although there is no known cure for muscular dystrophy, physical therapy is vital to slowing the progression of the disease. Without it, patients with some types of muscular dystrophy rapidly begin to lose muscle mass. This atrophy is oftentimes permanent and irreversible. Since being at ICC, Mr. Peters’ muscles have atrophied to the point of near complete loss of the use of his limbs.

This is not the first time that ICC has subjected a disabled inmate to inhumane conditions. In 2005, Nelson Landry sued over his denial of medical and other care at ICC. That case, Landry v. Hebert, resolved with Iberia Parish paying substantial damages to compensate Mr. Landry for his mistreatment.

Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said: “Iberia Parish should have learned that it cannot ignore the basic human needs of the people in its care. Apart from the human cost, the taxpayers of Iberia Parish should not have to pay the price in damages if their officials simply fail to provide care that is available.”

Copies of the ACLU's letters on behalf of Reginald Peters are available at these links:

First Letter

Second Letter

Third Letter

Rights Groups File Emergency Human Rights Petition to Stop Imminent Deportations to Haiti

From our friends at Center for Constitutional Rights:
Today six civil and human rights groups filed an emergency petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to halt the roundups, detention, and imminent deportations of hundreds of Haitian nationals by the United States government. The petition, submitted by the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights and Immigration Clinics, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Alternative Chance, and the Loyola Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice, argues that deporting people at this moment to Haiti, which is still reeling from the devastating January 2010 earthquake and is burdened with a massive cholera epidemic, political unrest, and rampant street violence, will result in serious human rights violations, including deprivations of the rights to life, family, and due process, and freedom from cruel or unusual punishment.

Deportations from the U.S. to Haiti have been stayed on humanitarian grounds since the January 12, 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti. Advocates and community members were shocked when, on December 9, 2010, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unexpectedly announced that it was lifting the ban on deportations to Haiti for individuals with criminal convictions and that it would resume deportations in January 2011, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake.

“The U.S. Government is violating important human rights obligations,” said Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, Director of the Human Rights Clinic at University of Miami School of Law. “These deportations will compound a catastrophic public health and humanitarian crisis in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is simply unconscionable to resume deportations to Haiti on the one-year anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters in world history, especially as a cholera epidemic rages across the country.”

“The upshot of this abrupt change in policy,” said Sunita Patel, Staff Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, “is that the Obama administration plans to deport Haitian nationals, many living and working in the community here with their families, to a country in the midst of a cholera epidemic. Since 2006, Haiti has detained people like the petitioners in overcrowded police holding cells without toilets, sinks or access to safe drinking water. The government’s actions will only put more people at risk of death.”

The petition asks the IACHR to order the U.S. to adopt precautionary measures to prevent irreparable harm to the Haitians subject to imminent deportation. Specifically, the petition asks the U.S. to continue its stay of deportations, release the petitioners and grant “deferred action” status to all people facing removal. In addition, the petition asks that the U.S. government publicly release information about its decision to resume deportations to Haiti, and that the government publicly engage with the Haitian-American community before instituting policy changes that will dramatically affect community members.

The petition relies on information gathered from interviews by the Loyola Law Clinic & Center for Social Justice and Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center with Haitians detained in Louisiana. It also includes declarations from Michelle Karshan, the Director of Alternative Chance, and two doctors with extensive practice in Haiti, Dr. John May and Dr. Arthur Fournier. Together, these declarations paint a distressing picture of the disastrous consequences of these planned deportations.

Romy Lerner, Supervising Attorney at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center said, ”We are deeply concerned that this policy is tearing apart the Haitian community. Our petition alleges that the United States has violated the human rights of the Haitians who are at risk of imminent deportations by separating them from their families without considering their ties to the United States or the welfare of their U.S. citizen children. In Miami, the community is terrified of what is about to happen.”

“While the U.S. has often historically shirked its human rights obligations toward Haitian migrants, we hope our government will come to its senses and halt the planned deportations of the individuals whose stories are represented in this petition,” said Rebecca Sharpless, Director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law.

To read the request for precautionary measures, go to this link.

Sheriff Gusman Continues to Seek Larger Jail

From our friends at ACLU of Louisiana:
The American Civil Liberties Union today submitted a request to Sheriff Marlin Gusman seeking public records documenting the studies he has generated or commissioned that justify his request for more than twice the number of jail beds than was recommended by a national expert using the Sheriff’s own data.

On November 16, 2010, the Criminal Justice Working Group appointed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu recommended authorization of a new Parish Prison facility to replace the existing Templeman III and IV sites, consisting of no more than 1438 prison beds. This figure was based in large part on a study commissioned by national expert Dr. James Austin, as well as public comments about the need to bring Orleans Parish in line with national best practices in prison reform.

Still unresolved is the ultimate use of city-owned property at Templeman I and II, and whether it will be used to construct additional beds beyond the 1438 recommended by the Working Group. With the Working Group continuing to address that issue, Sheriff Gusman continues to resist the recommended cap of 1438 beds.

“Sheriff Gusman insists that he needs additional prison beds despite the expert recommendations and the conclusion of the Working Group,” said Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “Yet he has never revealed the basis for his claims that 1438 beds is not enough. He should tell the public why the conclusions of the expert retained by the City are wrong, and why the recommendation of Working Group appointed by the Mayor should be disregarded.”

Among other things, the ACLU asks for studies, reports, or data in the Sheriff's possession that would identify an optimal size of the detention facilities. “The Working Group continues to meet, and must have access to all of the available information to make its final decision,” Esman said. “We continue to seek the basis for Gusman's claims that he needs more jail beds, because the people of New Orleans need to know that the decisions will be made based on data and expert recommendations.”

A copy of the ACLU’s request is available online here.

Sixth Grader Handcuffed at Elementary/Middle School in Shreveport

From our friends at ACLU of Louisiana:

Today the ACLU of Louisiana requested records from the Caddo Parish School Board and Walnut Hill Elementary/Middle School, seeking information about handcuffing children at school. Acting in response to the handcuffing of a sixth grader four days after the child was hit by another student at the school bus stop, the ACLU wants to know why the child was handcuffed by the police at school, and why police action was taken days after the child was a victim of an attack by another student.

“School discipline problems should be resolved by school disciplinarians, not by turning a child into a criminal,” said Marjorie R. Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “A sixth grader is a child, not an adult. The police have no business enforcing rules of an elementary school, and schools have no business involving law enforcement in disciplinary matters.”

In this case, the child was ordered to the principal's office at Walnut Hill four days after he was assaulted, where he was greeted by the police who led him, in handcuffs, to his grandmother's car. “The only possible justification for the handcuffs was to humiliate or frighten the child, which is an abuse of law enforcement authority,” continued Esman.

In its public records requests to Walnut Hill and the Caddo Parish School Board, the ACLU seeks information about other incidents of handcuffing within the past two years, as well as copies of agreements with the Shreveport Police Department. “We want to know how often children are handcuffed at school,” said Esman.

On December 22, 2010 the ACLU requested documents from the Shreveport Police Department seeking its records of similar agreements and practices. Those documents have not yet been received.

Copies of the public records requests can be found here:

To Walnut Hill School.

To Caddo Parish School Board.

To Shreveport Police Department.

Parody Music Video by Local Artists is International Hit

2-Cent Entertainment, a local collective of young Black media makers, are known for both entertaining and inciting. They have worked with local grassroots groups like the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, documented protests and rallies, and produced music videos for up-and-coming and established artists. Brandan “BMike” Odums, one of the founders of 2-Cent, currently has 3 videos on steady rotation at MTV Jams, MTV Hits and VH1 Soul.

2-Cent describe themselves as "a collaborative effort of creative, frustrated, and comedic twenty-somethings with the innate ability to convey humor and urgency toward issues that plague not only New Orleans, but also America in general. 2-Cent is a PBS documentary, an SNL skit and an In Living Color spoof all rolled into one." Their videos have featured appearances by everyone from musical stars such as Mos-Def and Common to movement leaders and intellectuals like Michael Eric Dyson and Fred Hampton, Jr.

For the second year running, 2-Cent has released a Christmas video, parodying some of todays most popular Rap/Hip Hop and Pop music artists. The video features members of 2-Cent and their friends doing hilarious and spot-on impressions of an incredible range of artists, including Kanye West, Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, Rihanna, Baby, Plies, Waka, Willow Smith, Drake, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Wyclef and Chris Brown. The video, called Good Christmas, has already been reposted on countless news, music and entertainment sites, and has been viewed more than a million times in the week since it's premiere.

Equipped with social consciousness, music as the backdrop, and the cold hard facts, 2-Cent have gained a loyal following, and won high-profile awards, including a 2008 NAACP award, and Silverdocs: AFI Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival Award for documentary filmmaking excellence. The entire time, they have never forgotten to lift up the stories of New Orleans.

Georgia Prison System Retaliates Against Prisoners Involved in Historic Protest

From Our Friends at the US Human Rights Network and the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights:
The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights learned that on or about December 16, Terrance Bryant Dean was severely beaten by guards at Macon State Prison where he was incarcerated. The Coalition asserts this brutal beating was not isolated and was a retaliatory act carried out by the Department of Corrections (DOC) against non-violent striking inmates. The Coalition was formed to support the interests and agenda of thousands of Georgia prisoners who staged a peaceful protest and work strike initiated in early December.

The Coalition is concerned about continued violent retaliation against the multiracial group of prisoners who staged a peaceful protest to be paid for their labor, for educational opportunities, access to family members, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, and other human rights. The eight-day strike, begun in early December, involved united prison populations at various prisons, including Hays, Smith, Telfair and Macon State Prisons.

Dean’s mother, Mrs. Willie Maude Dean, stated that since she learned from inmates that her son had been beaten, she has been given no information about his condition or whereabouts by the DOC, and that she and Dean’s sisters, Wendy Johnson and Natasha Montgomery, have been denied access to him since they discovered he was hospitalized at Atlanta Medical Center.

It was around the same time of this beating that the Coalition was meeting with the DOC making the demand that a Coalition fact-finding delegation be provided access to certain prisons to investigate conditions inside.

The DOC acceded to provide such access to a Coalition delegation—starting at Macon State Prison. However, even as the delegation visited Macon State, the DOC was apparently covering-up Dean’s reported retaliatory beating there by several CERT (Correctional Emergency Response Team) Team members, who witnesses reported restrained Dean after an alleged altercation with a guard, dragged him from his cell in handcuffs and leg irons, removed him to the prison gym and beat him unconscious. The beating remained unreported by the DOC even though the Coalition specifically raised questions about reports of retaliatory beatings and about the status and whereabouts of 37—or more—men the DOC identified as strike “conspirators.”

Mrs. Dean told Coalition leaders last night that when she asked Macon State Warden McLaughlin where was her son, based on concerns raised by prisoner reports he had been beaten nearly to death, McLaughlin told her he was “in the hole,” or, an isolation cell. In fact, Mr. Dean was already in the hospital.

The Coalition is raising concerns about the potential cover up of an attempted murder and the refusal, to date, of the prison to identify the missing 37 or more inmates deemed “conspirators” by the DOC. The Coalition is calling for the DOC and other state officials to sit down with the inmates to start a process to realize the inmates’ human rights.

The Coalition, which has grown into an entity of thousands of supporters and hundreds of organizations across the U.S. and internationally, includes the NAACP, the Nation of Islam, the ACLU, the U.S. Human Rights Network, All of Us or None, The Ordinary People Society and many others, and is co-chaired by Dubose and author-activist Elaine Brown.

A Coalition fact-finding delegation visited Macon State Prison on December 20 and was visiting Smith State Prison yesterday, December 29th, when the Coalition uncovered facts about Mr. Dean’s reported, brutal beating. The Coalition is planning to release a full report of its investigations and prison visits once the investigations are completed.

Family members and Coalition members, including NAACP Georgia State Conference President Ed Dubose and Georgia ACLU Legal Director Chara Jackson, will attempt to see the beaten prisoner today at Atlanta Medical Center.

Photo Above: Young prisoner Rodriques Dukes in solitary confinement at Georgia's Hays State Prison.

Eight Homeless Youth Die in New Orleans Fire – What Does It Say About US?

By Bill Quigley

Eight young people, who the Fire Department said were “trying to stay warm,” perished in a raging fire during the night in New Orleans. The young people were squatting in an abandoned wood framed tin walled warehouse in a Ninth Ward neighborhood bordering a large train yard. The young people apparently had a barrel with wood burning in it for heat. Officials said this was the city’s most deadly fire in twenty five years.

The eight young people, estimated to be in their late teens and early twenties, remain unidentified. “We don’t know their IDs,” said the Fire Department, “they were so burned we cannot even tell their genders.”

Audrey, a young woman with brown dreads and a Polish last name, arrived at the scorched scene. She spent the night in the warehouse a couple of times. Because last night was so cold she and a few others begged money from people in the French Quarter and got enough to spend the night in a hotel. Do you know who was in there? “Usually 10 to 15 people, nobody uses last names, but Katy, Jeff, Sammy, Nicky, John and Mooncat usually stay there,” she sobbed. Why did people stay here? “A lot of freight hoppers stay here,” she said, pointing to the nearby trains. “We are just passing through, hopping trains. We don’t have any money.” Behind her a group of young people were crying and hugging as they picked up pieces of a navy blue sweatshirt from the burnt remains.

There are an estimated 1.6 to 2.8 million homeless youth in the US, people between the ages of 12 and 24, according to a June 2010 report of the Center for American Progress. Most are homeless because of abuse, neglect, and family conflict. Gay and transgender youth are strikingly over-represented.

The fire happened in an area of abandoned warehouses at the end of Prieur Street, two blocks towards the train tracks down from the new Family Dollar on Claiborne. It is a modest neighborhood. Some people are back, some aren’t. One block from the warehouses is a long lime green shotgun house with a beautiful red rose bush in front. Next door stands a big grey double shotgun with a wide open door and tattered curtains hanging out broken windows. Untouched since Katrina, the grey house sports OWNER HAS DOG spray painted on the front and the date, 10.8.5. “After Katrina, people don’t have the money to fix their houses up,” said the firefighter.

Across the street from the blackened warehouse is a vacant lot with a tiny handmade wooden shelter at its end. No electricity, no water. Inside are a mattress and some clothes. Follow the path through the weeds and there is another long vacant building that looks like it was once a school. Clearly people stay here as well. Empty cans of baked beans, chili, and Vienna sausages are piled next to Four Loko cans, jars of peanut butter, and empty juice boxes. “Where’s our skate park?” is painted onto the wall in blazing red. A Thanksgiving card with a teddy bear on the outside lies on the pavement. Nana wishes the best to granddaughter Heather and son Dave.

New Orleans has 3,000 to 6,000 homeless people living in abandoned buildings according to an August 2010 report by Unity of Greater New Orleans. The report, “Search and Rescue Five Years Later: Saving People Still Trapped in Katrina’s Ruins,” notes homelessness has doubled since Katrina. Seventy-five percent of the people in those buildings are survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Outreach workers report many are disabled but many also work. Inside abandoned buildings live full-time sitters and restaurant workers.

Since Katrina, New Orleans has a severe homeless problem because of the scarcity of affordable housing. HUD and local governments demolished over 4000 affordable public housing apartments after Katrina. “The current housing crisis in New Orleans reflects the disastrous impact of the demolition policy,” according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing in a February 2010 report very critical of the United States. Rents rose. Tens of thousands of homes remain vacant. Over 30,000 families are on the waiting list for affordable housing.

A November 2010 report from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center pegs the number of vacant and blighted properties at over 40,000 in New Orleans with more in the suburbs – 14,000 of which are owned by the government.

Unity for the Homeless has been asking for help for people living in abandoned buildings for years. They have four outreach workers who nightly check on people living in abandoned buildings. Five recommendations from Unity to help these thousands of people: convert abandoned building into housing for the homeless; fund case managers to help people with disabilities move into housing; additional outreach and housing search workers; create a small shelter with intensive services for people with mental health problems who are resistant to shelters; and serious investment in affordable rental housing. There are several hundred housing vouchers available for disabled homeless people but no money to fund the caseworkers they need.

Nationally, the US has severely cut its investment in affordable housing despite increasing need from the foreclosure and economic crises. Homelessness is of course up all over. The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported in December 2010 that demands for food and housing are up across the country. The causes? Unemployment, high housing costs and low wages.

Will we look into our abandoned buildings and look into the eyes of our abandoned daughters and sons and sisters and brothers? Will our nation address unemployment, high housing costs, and low wages? Will we address the abuse, neglect, and family conflict that create homelessness for millions of youth, especially gay and transgender youth? Or will the fires continue and the lives end?

Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com.

Did the Media Fail to Report What They Knew About Police Violence After Katrina?

On December 10, journalist AC Thompson wrote:

Nobody within the New Orleans Police Department ever tried to bring Warren, McRae and the rest to justice. Nobody went to the chief. Nobody went to internal affairs. Nobody went to the local district attorney or the state attorney general or the U.S. Department of Justice. Every single officer who knew about the circumstances of Glover's demise, and there were easily a dozen of them, was content to simply let him disappear.

He's right. The problems at the NOPD go beyond those officers brought on trial. As Thompson says, "the issues with the New Orleans police go far beyond the misconduct by a few rogue cops." The problems in the NOPD are systemic, and demand a systemic change, including a shifting of priorities towards valuing the lives of the city's African-American majority.

However, there is one topic that Thompson has failed to address, and that's the role of our local media - very much including the Times-Picayune - which also may have failed to report what they knew, or at the very least placed a lower value on stories that contradicted the official narrative of police heroism.

In an important article in Sunday's Picayune, Jarvis DeBerry reports that Alex Brandon, who at the time of the Hurricane and it's aftermath had worked as a photographer for the Times-Picayune, "saw things and heard things that proved to be useful in a criminal investigation. He didn't report them as news." DeBerry says that Brandon "let down his profession and the people who pick up this newspaper in a search for the truth."

During the recent trial of the officers who are accused of killing Henry Glover and covering up the crime, Brandon - who was also on Danziger Bridge in the aftermath of police killings there - testified that he saw officers beating Glover's brother Ed King and good samaritan William Tanner, and later heard his "good friend" Officer David Warren admit that he had shot Glover. He stayed silent, even when directly asked about the cases by photo editor Doug Parker.

DeBerry asks the question, "Glover's family had to wait more than five years for justice. Would it have been that long if Brandon, who now works for The Associated Press, had been the courageous journalist he was believed to be and had told the world what he knew?"

The question now becomes, what other reporters didn't report all that they knew, either because they were participating in a cover up, or - more likely - just because they didn't prioritize the stories of police violence, deferred to official reports, and didn't want to make waves.

Pictured above: Former Times-Picayune Photographer Alex Brandon.

State of Louisiana Attempts to Deny Legal Birth Cerificate to Child Adopted by Gay Couple

From our friends at the ACLU of Louisiana:

Today the American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging a federal appeals court to uphold its earlier decision ordering Louisiana to issue a birth certificate with the names of both parents to a boy who was adopted by a gay couple in New York.

On February 10, 2010, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit ruled that the State of Louisiana must treat the boy, born in Louisiana but legally adopted by his two fathers in New York, exactly as it treats other adopted children born in Louisiana, and issue a birth certificate with the names of both of the child's legal parents. The court affirmed the lower court's order requiring the Louisiana Registrar of Vital Records, Darlene Smith, to issue a new birth certificate reflecting the information required by state statute.

Upon request of the Registrar, the case was accepted by the entire U.S. Fifth Circuit acting “en banc” and is set for hearing on January 19, 2011. “It is morally wrong, as well as a violation of longstanding constitutional law, to deny a child an accurate birth certificate just because a state official objects to the child's parents,” said Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "Punishing a child for who his parents are defies all logic as well as all legal principles, long upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Louisiana officials should stop trying to dictate morality at the expense of children who need their protection."

The child's parents, Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, adopted their Louisiana-born son in 2006 in a New York court. Although Louisiana law requires issuing a new birth certificate to adoptive parents listing both of their names, the Louisiana Attorney General objected and advised the Registrar that she didn't have to issue the birth certificate because the couple is unmarried and the adoption would not have been granted if they lived in Louisiana. Two courts have already ruled that the Register must issue the birth certificate as requested by the parents, who have hoped to use it to demonstrate Mickey Smith's status as the child's father for health insurance purposes..

It its friend-of-the-court brief, the ACLU charges that denying a child of unmarried parents a birth certificate that accurately reflects his or her relationship to his or her legal parents singles these children out for discrimination. According to the brief, the only possible reason for the state to deny children of unmarried couples a birth certificate is to express moral disapproval of unmarried couples, which is unconstitutional. Only adopted children of unmarried couples are denied accurate birth certificates under the Registrar's policy, which consigns those children to a less-than-equal status in violation of their rights.

"The Fifth Circuit has already recognized that discrimination against children based on their parents' status is against the law,” added Esman. “We hope that the entire court will rule as its panel did previously, when it upheld the district court's ruling in favor of fairness and equality for all Louisiana-born children.”

Oral argument in the case will be held on January 19, 2011. Lawyers on the ACLU's brief include Katie Schwartzmann, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, and Noah Levine, P. Patty Li, and Matthew D. Benedetto of the New York law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.

A copy of the ACLU's brief can be found at this link.

US Government Announces Qualified Support for UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

This news release, below, comes from the International Indian Treaty Council:

The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) welcomed the announcement today by US President Obama of the United States’ support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The President's long-awaited statement of support was made in Washington DC during a Tribal Nations Conference attended by over 300 Tribal Leaders from throughout the US.

The President stated that “… today I can announce that the United States is lending its support to this Declaration. The aspirations it affirms -- including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples -- are ones we must always seek to fulfill.”

This endorsement by the US for the Declaration is a positive, necessary and long-overdue step forward. The US is the last country to express its support for the Declaration which recognizes a broad range of rights for Indigenous Peoples in the US and around the world. Australia, New Zealand and Canada joined with the US to vote “NO” when the Declaration was adopted by a vote of 144 countries in favor at the UN General Assembly on September 13th 2007. With today’s announcement, all 4 of the opposing States have changed their position.

IITC Executive Director Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation, participated in the work on the Declaration at the United Nations over many years. Hearing today’s news, she expressed IITC’s appreciation to the thousands of Indigenous Nations, organizations and human rights allies who called upon the US to express unqualified support for the Declaration since the US announced the “formal review” of its position in April of this year.

However, she also expressed IITC’s strong disappointment with the limitations the US decided to place on its support. The “Announcement of U.S. Support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” released today contains a number of qualifications which call into serious question the US government’s intention to fully recognize and implement many of the key rights contained in the Declaration.

Several references are made to implementation of rights in accordance with existing Federal Laws and policies. Of particular concern is the statement that the US plans to recognize “a new and distinct international concept of self-determination specific to indigenous peoples…“different from the existing right of self-determination in international law.” This interpretation by the US has no basis in the actual text of the Declaration or the principles of international human rights standards which uphold non-discrimination and equal rights. In Article 3, the Declaration defines Self-determination for Indigenous Peoples consistent with the language affirming this right for “All Peoples” in international law.

The US statement also limits the US interpretation of the right to Free Prior and Informed Consent contained in many provisions of the Declaration to “consultation”, a much more limited and diminished standard.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an international standard adopted overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly. It must not be subject to selective redrafting or new interpretations by the US or any other State attempting to redefine or limit the inherent rights it recognizes. It also can’t be limited by narrow interpretations subject to existing federal laws and policies. The IITC calls upon the US government to reassess its position on these qualifications and express its full support for all of the Declaration’s provisions. The next step will be to evaluate and, wherever needed, raise its own laws and policies up to the minimum standard contained in the Declaration. These actions will convey the good faith, mutual respect and true spirit of partnership between States and Indigenous Peoples which the Declaration intends to promote.

Chief Gary Harrison of Chickaloon Village Traditional Council in Alaska participated in many of the United Nations sessions during the Declaration’s development. As a tribal leader, he was present at the meeting today in Washington DC when the announcement was made by President Obama. Chief Harrison also focused on the need for implementation. He said that “It is about time the US took this step after opposing the Declaration for so many years. Now they need take measures to ensure that it’s more than just an aspirational document for the American Indian, Alaska and Hawaiian Native Nations. Since Chickaloon Village is currently facing threats of unwanted coal mining in our traditional homelands, the rights in the Declaration to free prior and informed consent, self-determination, subsistence, land and resource rights are especially important to us. Implementation is what we are waiting for now”.

The UN Declaration was the first UN human rights instrument developed with the consistent, direct and full participation of the "subjects” of the rights under discussion. Any programs, policies or mechanisms established by the US to implement its new commitment to Indigenous Peoples must be planned and implemented with the full participation and consent of Indigenous Peoples to be in keeping with the provisions of Declaration. Reviewing the status of compliance with US Treaty obligations to Indigenous Nations, and establishing a fair and participatory mechanism to provide effective redress, would be a good place to start in this process.

The International Indian Treaty Council was founded in 1974 in Standing Rock South Dakota and was the first Indigenous organization to receive Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council in 1977. IITC was involved in each stage of the 25-year process at the United Nations to draft and adopt the Declaration.

One Hundred Haitian Immigrants Moved to Louisiana Prisons are Facing Immediate Deportation

We have recently heard from the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) that 100 Haitians facing deportation have been moved to prisons in Louisiana, including the detention centers in Jena, Waterproof, and Basile.

According to a statement from FIAC:

Nearly a year after the January 12, 2010 earthquake which devastated that country, 1.5 million people remain homeless, most of them living in tent cities. A recent cholera outbreak has killed more than 2,300 Haitians and has sickened over 104,000 others. A contested election has sparked violence, and both Haiti and its government are on the verge of total collapse. Conditions are so dire that on Thursday the U.S. State Department issued a warning against any travel to Haiti.

Against this backdrop, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun to detain, and has stated it will begin to deport, Haitians who have completed criminal sentences in the United States, without any notice to the individuals or their families. On Tuesday, roughly 100 detained Haitians in South Florida were transferred --- again without notice --- to rural Louisiana, ensuring that the detainees will not have access to their families or attorneys before they are deported to an unsafe and unstable Haiti. Just two weeks before Christmas, American family members are devastated to find that they may never see their loved one again. Although Haitians who qualify may register for Temporary Protected States (TPS) through January 18, 2011, many will now be afraid to come forward because of ICE's unprecedented actions.

The Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center is calling on the US to halt all deportations to Haiti. "Removing individuals to Haiti under these circumstances is unconscionable", said FIAC Executive Director Cheryl Little.

Although much of the argument against deportations to Haiti has been based on arguments about the dire situation the country is in, we would like to add that deportations like this would be wrong in any situation, to any country. As Arizona's Repeal Coalition has stated, "we believe everyone should have the freedom to live, love and work wherever they please."

Photo above: Evelyn, a Haitian immigrant, wears a permanent tracking device while she awaits a decision from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on whether she will be deported back to Haiti or allowed to stay with her 5-year-old daughter, who was born in the US.

Activists Across US Protest Red Cross in Haiti Solidarity Action

This Saturday, December 18th, activists in more than ten cities across the US will make a coordinated and simultaneous public stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti. Between 2:00pm and 4:00pm EST people committed to Haiti's recovery will assemble in front of local offices of the American Red Cross calling for greater transparency and a full accounting of the money that has been raised for the purpose of helping Haiti rebuild.

In New Orleans, which has a long history of connections with Haiti, activists will assemble from 1:00pm to 3:00pm CST at the Red Cross office at 2640 Canal Street, near Broad. According to a statement released by organizers, fact sheets will be distributed and the event will be recorded. The news release also says, "We are standing in solidarity with the people of Haiti for full accountability and transparency on the part of the American Red Cross. We are standing in solidarity with the people of Haiti for a full disclosure of the US role in Haiti, during this current crisis and historically. We are standing in solidarity with the people of Haiti for full recognition and respect for their human rights (a decent standard of living, proper education, health care, housing, political freedom, etc.)"

Activists say the American Red Cross has yet to release the bulk of funds collected for aid to Haiti, yet "is also earning interest on those unused funds - and has stated the interest will go to other projects." Activists say that the American Red Cross was chosen for this protest because of their role as a leading Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) involved in Haiti relief, but they stress that Red Cross is one of many organizations who have behaved unaccountably in this disaster.

Perhaps nowhere in the US is Red Cross as unpopular as in New Orleans, where the memory of post-Katrina discrimination and corruption by the aid agency is still fresh.

A February 2006 report from New York City’s Foundation Center points out that the Red Cross, which raised perhaps two billion dollars from Katrina appeals despite widespread accusations of racism and mismanagement, “ranked as by far the largest named recipient of contributions from foundation and corporate donors in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” receiving almost 35 percent of all aid, while grassroots and locally-led projects received virtually no support.

According to an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, foundations “seem to have been preoccupied with the issue of accountability. Many foundations wondered how they could be certain that grants to local groups would be well spent and, therefore, publicly accountable.” While those are reasonable concerns, it also reveals a double standard. The Chronicle writer goes on to state, “the question of accountability didn't seem to bother the large foundations that gave so generously to the Red Cross, which had a questionable record of competence to begin with and attracted even more criticism in the aftermath of Katrina over its unwise use of funds, high administrative costs, and lack of outreach to minorities.”

In Haiti post-earthquake, similar concerns were raised almost immediately. In addition, when the vast majority of post-earthquake aid went to NGOs like Red Cross, it played the role of further undermining the government’s sovereignty.

Red Cross and other large and bureaucratic aid agencies that function without and means of community accountability were quick to fundraise for Haiti. But did their aid reach people on the ground? The Associated Press reported that for every one dollar of U.S. aid to Haiti, "42 cents is for disaster assistance, 33 cents is for the U.S. military, 9 cents is for food, 9 cents is to transport the food, 5 cents to pay Haitians to help with recovery effort, less than 1 cent for the Haitian government and ½ a cent is for the government of the Dominican Republic."

Tracy Kidder, of the Haiti-based organization Partners in Health/ Zanmi Lasante, said it very well: "There are 10,000 aid organizations in Haiti, and Haiti is still one of the poorest countries in the world - then something‘s wrong with the way things are, the way aid is being administered."

A statement signed by six human rights organizations brought these concerns to the discussion of Haiti relief. "There is no doubt that Haiti's hungry, thirsty, injured, and sick urgently need all the assistance the international community can provide, but it is critical that the underlying goal of improving human rights drives the distribution of every dollar of aid given to Haiti," said Loune Viaud, Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at Partners in Health, one of the drafters of the letter. "The only way to avoid escalation of this crisis is for international aid to take a long-term view and strive to rebuild a stronger Haiti -- one that includes a government that can ensure the basic human rights of all Haitians and a nation that is empowered to demand those rights."

Glover Trial: The Jury's Still Out

By David Soublet

Although a verdict was announced on December 9 in the Henry Glover case, whether justice has been served is still debatable. A clearer picture won't materialize until those found guilty are sentenced months later. No matter how sentencing turns out, glaring injustices are already apparent in the jury verdict and immediate aftermath at NOPD.

Glover was shot and killed by former police officer David Warren outside an Algiers mall days after Katrina. Warren was found guilty of manslaughter, not murder. Most accounts, including Warren's partner Linda Howard, who was an eye witness, indicate that Glover was not close enough to present a threat to Warren's life, did not have a weapon, and was retreating from the area when he was hit with a fatal bullet from Warren's brand new high-powered rifle. Warren's claims of Katrina stress and seeing a shiny object in Glover's hand were apparently bought by the jury, and murder charges were reduced to manslaughter.

Officer Greg McRae's fate was sealed from day one before he testified when, in opening arguments, his attorney announced that McRae drove a vehicle containing Glover's body over an Algiers levy and torched it. His defense, ludicrous at best, is that he was exhausted, had been ordered to remove Glover's remains from the police compound, and he didn't want to smell the rot of death. Fortunately, the jury rejected his sympathy plea and found him guilty of 4 of 5 counts. The verdict in Mc Rae's case appears to fit the crime as it relates to Glover.

Travis McCabe was found guilty of writing a false police report and lying to a grand jury. In a way, his actions may have been the most despicable of the 3 convicts. Having the responsibility and opportunity to clear the air and expose the truth about what happened; he lied and covered up for his pals. It is this cowardly behavior that must change before true internal cultural progress will occur in NOPD. He deserves the maximum prison term available by law.

The most egregious error in the verdicts was the acquittal of Lieutenant Dwayne Scheurmann. Among other charges, Scheurmann admitted following McRae to the levee to dispose of Glover's body and watching him burn it. He concealed the matter until it was apparent that he'd be headed to prison with McRae. If he did not obstruct a federal investigation, as he was charged, then how is obstruction defined? When one does not come forward with the truth immediately in such a horrific case as this, he personifies obstruction!

Ultimate justice begs answers to many other questions in the Glover case, including: How many years will Warren, McRae and McCabe get? Who will appeal and what will result from those appeals? What happened to Glover's skull? Who will be held accountable for ordering Glover's body removed from the compound? Will Chief Ronal Serpas fire several other cops who admitted lying to federal officers or the grand jury, or simply blend them back into police uniforms? Henry Glover's family and his headless remains will cry out for complete justice until these questions are answered.

Reprinted from 12/13/10 Sync504.com Newsletter
Photo/Newsprint from Mike Therealist's Facebook Photos

Excluded Workers Unite to Expand the Human Right to Organize

From our friends and allies at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference, which starts today in Birmingham, Alabama:
Excluded Workers Report Introduced on International Human Rights Day

Today, International Human Rights Day, workers from sectors historically excluded from labor protections and the right to organize are speaking out in Birmingham, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, and here in New Orleans.

After launching the Excluded Workers Congress at the US Social Forum in Detroit earlier this summer, representatives from 9 different sectors have released “Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at Work,” a report highlighting on-going efforts to dramatically expand workers’ human right to organize and collectively bargain.

The Excluded Workers Congress and the report highlight workers who have historically been excluded from labor protections, the right to organize, and underrepresented in the labor movement - domestic workers, farmworkers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, day laborers, guestworkers, workers from Southern “right to work” states, workfare workers and formerly incarcerated workers.

In addition to highlighting specific stories of workers, the report discusses on-going campaigns of their organizations, and innovative strategies to expand the right-to-organize in the United States, including the fight to win collective bargaining rights for domestic workers and the campaign for the POWER Act, which would protect immigrant workers from employer retaliation if they file a labor complaint. “Unity for Dignity” lays out a vision for an expanded labor movement, including collaboration between sectors, traditional trade unions, worker centers, and international partners.

“Expanding the workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain in existing and new jobs is a key factor in guaranteeing a real economic recovery,” said Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs with Justice. “When working families have the means to live a dignified life, the economy as a whole will benefit.”

The Excluded Workers Congress is currently laying the groundwork for upcoming action in the New Year.

To see a video of the first Congress of Excluded Workers at the US Social Forum, go to this link.

Three Officers Convicted in Henry Glover Killing And Cover-Up But Those Who Planned the Cover-Up Go Free

As verdicts were read yesterday in the first major trial involving the killings carried out by New Orleans police officers post-Katrina, reactions across the city were mixed. US Attorney Jim Letten, who refused for years to investigate the killings, hailed the verdict as a victory for not only his office but for "honest police officers." Activists also expressed optimism - Community United for Change co-founder Malcolm Suber expressed hope that "this may be the start of a new day," for the NOPD.

As reported on the website Pro-Publica, which first broke the story two years ago,

The jury found ex-cop David Warren guilty of shooting Glover, officer Greg McRae guilty of burning Glover's body, and Lt. Travis McCabe guilty of creating a false police report and misleading federal authorities when questioned about the case.

Two other police officials, Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann and former Lt. Robert Italiano, were acquitted of all charges against them. Scheuermann had been accused of participating in the burning Glover's body and beating the men who sought to rescue him after he was shot. Italiano had been indicted for trying to cover-up the crimes.

The acquittals of Scheuermann and Italiano, who seem to have been the officers who directly oversaw the cover-up, is especially disappointing. As recently reported by Pro-Publica and the Times-Picayune, Scheuermann seems to have benefited from the protection of his fellow officers many times over the years:

The lieutenant has weathered more than 50 separate complaints, ranging from accusations of brutality and rape to improper searches and seizures. But none of the allegations ever stuck, although two complaints are still pending. Every time, Scheuermann was cleared and sent back onto the streets.

He has also fired his gun in at least 15 different incidents, wounding at least four people. Experts on police practices say the number is unusual -- most officers never fire their weapons.

Scheuermann's lawyer told reporters that Scheuermann is "extremely happy about all of this. He's disappointed about his fellow officers who were convicted. He's a police officer for the city of New Orleans. He'll be at work tomorrow doing what he does and what he's always done."

One thing should be clear from this trial: the NOPD has an honesty problem. Almost all officers involved testified to lying at some point, or heard other officers testify that they had lied. The trial revealed that officers had lied in the reports they wrote, that they had lied in discussions with each other, and that they had lied to federal investigators.

Rebecca Glover, Henry Glover's aunt, told reporters, "all of them should have been found guilty. They all participated in this."