Showing posts with label Prison-Industrial Complex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prison-Industrial Complex. Show all posts
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Dedicated To A Nation Of 'Adult Children' Who Want Terrorism To Disappear (but not their neighbor or themselves)
.Conservative Columnist David Brooks On America, A Nation Of Adult Children who believe that living in a police state beats having to do anything to ameliorate the conditions that lead to it:
(Quote context, in regard to the 'Underpants Bomber' and concurrent citizen attention on alleged 'flaws' in the New American Police State Apparatus.)
"Now we seem to expect perfection from government and then throw temper tantrums when it is not achieved. We seem to be in the position of young adolescents — who believe mommy and daddy can take care of everything, and then grow angry and cynical when it becomes clear they can’t [...]
H/t Firedoglake
Which is QUITE a change in the American attitude from 9 years ago:
"On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid, the 'shoe-bomber,' attempted to detonate explosives on an American airliner. On December 27, Usama Bin Laden issued a new, menacing videotape. How did the Bush administration respond to these dramatic events? How did CNN cover the response?
Bush's response was to plant a live oak tree and go for a jog, and follow 'through on his promise to get a little bit of rest and relaxation on this trip down here to Crawford.' CNN reported this as a good thing. Bush also declined to comment on the Bin Laden tape, and CNN helpfully explained this silence as a wise decision not to respond to someone who 'might be dead.'"
In Full @ Juan Cole's Informed Comment
Pop Quiz!
Analyze the childlike, mercurial, historically amnesiac, American socio-cultural traits, and hypothesize how they affect the reasons, rationales, and denials in regard to the persecution of worthless wars that create 'terrorism' in the first place.
Well, since we can't control our childish desires to accumulate "stuff" at the expense of environmental destruction and slave-labor conditions (Even your chocolate... ...and flowers, Luvr!) those demands place on the extractive and manufacturing countries of the world (ie. the "third world"), we can start by putting everyone we 'fear' in prison... or something LIKE a prison.
(This article appeared in the January 4, 2010 edition of The Nation.)
America's Secret ICE Castles
By Jacqueline Stevens
December 16, 2009
"If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear."
Monday, August 24, 2009
California's Overcrowded Prisons By-The-Numbers (200% of design capacity a big enough number for ya?) - Sacramento Bee
(Click the image for an "Interactive" @ Sac Bee)Other charts are available from the sidebar:
Friday, August 21, 2009
UPDATED: Leonard Peltier, America’s most famous and longest serving political prisoner PAROLE DENIED! Next Chance, 2024, He Will Be 79 Years Old
Can You Say:
"International Human Rights Violation"?
The statement from his lawyer:
"...it is not true that Leonard Peltier participated in "the execution style murders of two FBI agents," as the Parole Commission asserts, and there never has been credible evidence of Mr. Peltier's responsibility for the fatal shots as the FBI continues to allege. Moreover, given the corrupt practices of the FBI, itself, it is entirely untrue that Leonard Peltier's parole at this juncture will in any way "depreciate the seriousness" of his conduct and/or "promote disrespect for the law." (From the response by Thomas J. Harrington, Executive Assistant Director, FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branchto to the Parole board's decision ) We will continue to seek parole and clemency for Mr. Peltier..." [In Full]The full set of legal documents relating to Leonard Peltier's trial and incarceration, plus FOIA information about COINTELPRO and the FBI's persecution of Peltier, AIM, and other Native activists can be found HERE
More information about how you can help [HERE]
Sign the petition here to DEMAND CLEMENCY!
The previous petition totaled almost 27,0000 signatures
Peltier denied parole
By Gale Courey Toensing
Indian Country Today
August 21 2009
BISMARCK, N.D. — American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, imprisoned since 1977 for the deaths of two FBI agents, has been denied parole after authorities decided that releasing him would diminish the seriousness of his crime (...and the prosecutor himself conceding during an appellate hearing that, “We do not know who shot the agents.”), the Associated Press reported in mid-afternoon on Aug. 21.
Peltier had his first parole hearing in 16 years in July. He will not be eligible for parole again until July 2024, when he will be 79 years old. [In Full]
For all intents and purposes, it began with the Pan-Tribal occupation of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay
The 1973 armed occupation of Wounded Knee (Original dead links in re Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge @ MRZine replaced) along with the siege at the Pine Ridge Reservation one year later (which led directly to the incarceration of Leonard Peltier) are etched deeper in the public consciousness in terms of recent Indian history, but is was the Alcatraz Island occupation that ushered in a new era of Native American activism.
"The occupiers," writes Ben Winton in the Fall 1999 issue of Native Peoples magazine, "were an unlikely mix of Indian college activists, families with children fresh off reservations and urban dwellers disenchanted with what they called the U.S. government's economic, social and political neglect." [ In Full @ MRZine]
"I didn't kill the agents," Peltier says. "I didn't order anyone to kill those agents. I am an innocent man. I am an innocent man."Peltier is now more than fifty years old. Home to him is his cell in the Federal Prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, where 150 years earlier, another Indian warrior, Spotted Tail of the Lakota, was also a prisoner. Later Leonard Crow Dog would have his turn at Leavenworth as well.
Peltier paints beautiful pictures (Dead Link, See HERE) in a native style which are highly valued. He also dreams of freedom. This yearning is easily visible in Peltier's beautiful paintings.
Leonard Peltier hopes that someday, like Nelson Mandela, like "Geronimo" Pratt, he too will be released.
Source - Leonard Peltier: Shackled Eagle
Indian Country Today:
Peltier awaits parole decision
By Gale Courey Toensing
Story Published: Aug 17, 2009
LEWSIBURG, Pa. – There’s a digital clock on the official Leonard Peltier Web site marking the time the American Indian Movement activist has been in prison.
On a recent visit to www.leonardpeltier.net the clock read “12241 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes, and 43 seconds of ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT,” then “12241 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes, and 44 seconds of ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT,” “12241 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes, and 45 seconds of ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT” and so on – a constant countdown that will either end within several days or continue for an unknown period of time, perhaps years, possibly until Peltier’s life ends.
The Federal Parole Board is expected to render a decision on whether Peltier will be released from prison after serving 33 years on two murder charges by Aug. 21.
Peltier was granted his second parole hearing since 1993 July 28, and appeared before the board to plead his case. The board has 21 days to decide whether to release Peltier or deny parole and keep him in prison indefinitely.
Peltier was convicted in 1977 and given two consecutive life sentences for the murder of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, who were killed during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota June 26, 1975.
The 64-year-old man has maintained his innocence, but controversy over whether he committed the murders, and over the fairness of his trial persist.
Those convinced of his guilt say he shot the two agents in cold blood and deserves to stay in prison for the rest of his life.
Peltier’s supporters, which include a huge international component, say he is America’s most famous and longest serving political prisoner.
But Peltier’s attorney, Eric Seitz, said the only issue pertinent is the law and that Peltier is eligible for parole.
The events of June 26, 1975 took place against a backdrop of terror that had developed on Pine Ridge. The reservation was under internal siege at the hands of then Chairman Dick Wilson and his “GOON Squad” – the so-called Guardians of the Oglala Nation, who were supported by and collaborated with the FBI and BIA police.
The conflict has been characterized as a battle between Wilson’s secular group and traditional elders and others who were working for election reform on the reservation. More than 60 people from the traditional group had been killed in the two years before the 1975 shootout. None of those killings were investigated by local, state or federal law enforcement agencies.
By 1975 things were so bad that some of the tribe’s elders called AIM for help. A group of AIM activists, Peltier among them, responded and set up a camp on the reservation. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents in unmarked cars came onto the reservation apparently to serve a warrant to a boy who had stolen some boots. Soon after their arrival, shots were heard and the shoot-out began.
During the battle, the FBI agents and an Indian man named Joe Stuntz were shot to death. The activists fled, anticipating that the reservation would be overrun by FBI and other law enforcement people, which was exactly what happened. In the siege that followed, elders were beaten, houses were burned, people were terrorized and a lot of gun shots were fired.
Peltier escaped to Canada where he was later captured, extradited and brought to trial. Four of the AIM activists were indicted on murder charges, but only Peltier was convicted.
Over the years and through numerous appeals, dozens of allegations and inconsistencies have come to light regarding the FBI and the prosecution’s handling of the case, including witnesses recanting testimony against Peltier and accusing the FBI of coercing and threatening them into testifying; the FBI tampering with evidence and withholding crucial evidence from the jury, including the results of a ballistics report saying the bullet casing from the crime scene did not match Peltier’s gun...
...and the prosecutor himself conceding during an appellate hearing that, “We do not know who shot the agents.” In Full @ Indian Country Today
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Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Where The Crank Labs Are... AKA "Californians in Prison, By County"
A panel of federal judges Tuesday ordered state officials to lower California's prison population by about 40,500. No mass prisoner releases are imminent, but the order eventually could affect some counties more than others, since many counties send a higher proportion of residents to prison.Da Buffalo commented @ Google Maps:
"Where the Methamphetamine labs are in California" would be a useful comparison. But as someone who's watched the drug culture over the last 40 years morph to nihilistic escapism, and has lived in California for the last 33 of them, I'd say the prison-industrial complex is making 'bank' on Meth.
View Californians in Prison, By County in a larger map
Also See: Methland... @ Global Guerillas
(A PDF of the prologue to Nick Reding's book "Methland" is available here)
Why Midwestern Small Towns Have Been Ravaged by Meth Addiction @ Alternet
(with a recent review of the now-released Nick Reding book and discussion)
...and this Travus T. Hipp Commentary: Incidental Illuminations And A Closer Examination Of The Situation In Burma - We Have Some 'Conflicts Of Interest' Besides Chevron/Texaco Oil... Drugs & Gems
(The drug now driving Burma's underground economy is NOT Heroin anymore)
In summation... my socio-cultural insight @ the Global Guerrillas article (and a partial answer to this statement pulled from the Alternet article):
"Aside from its ease of manufacture -- you can make meth out of readily available industrial and pharmaceutical products, enabling a twenty-first-century variant on the moonshiners of earlier generations such as Jarvis -- the drug's most novel aspect was its clientele: the same predominantly white small-town residents who had watched the urban depredations of crack cocaine from afar and told themselves that they weren't that kind of people. "We're in Iowa, for God's sake," a former Oelwein high school principal, explaining his decision to request police patrols of his school, tells Reding. "We don't do that." In mainstream America's Rockwellian imagination, police officers in towns like Oelwein were supposed to be stopping high school kids from making out in cars on prom night. In the meth age they suddenly needed bulletproof vests and hazmat training."
I live in a town where there are literally hundreds of teenage speed freaks and AFAICT (and I've been watching the drug culture since the sixties) it fill a hole in one's psychology that, in consumer cultures such as the U.S. and most of the Western industrial world, is caused by the media's endless pitch that one is never good enough, the car is never classy enough, WHAT? You don't have a diamond studded Rollie on your wrist?
...and of course, the girl is NEVER skinny enough or self-assured enough to get the boy she likes (or so she thinks).
In other words all that advertising batters their self-esteem to the point, when it's all said and done, our children take a drug that essentially makes it easy for them to say: "I don't give a f*ck what you think!"
Last fathers day, I was listening to a local radio station.
There was this loud audio-compressed pitch for a local superstore.
BUY A CELL PHONE... BUY A PLASMA TV... BUY THIS... BUY THAT!... BUY SOMETHING!!! (the ad really said that last...), and after that ad, a PSA for methresources, the US government's meth self-help site.
Go figure.
Oh, and by the way, Perdue Pharma, the folks who brought us "Hillbilly Heroin", OxyContin (Rush Limbaugh's favorite), another curse on the rural youth of America, were fined a few million dollars and slapped on the wrist for lying to doctors across America about the non-addictive quality of their product.
The FDA told them it was OK to say that it MIGHT be less addictive... but that's NOT what their sales reps told the doctors.
Why hammer on the poor rural folks of America in need of a few extra buck to make the mortgage for the shack, and not put companies like Perdue Pharma out of business entirely for creating a generation of teenage junkies?
I'll answer that... Because the imprisoning and 'programming' of American youth is BIG dollars, and attacking the pharmacological source of another plague isn't.
The local smoothie store, 'Jamba Juice', employing kids in, and just out of high school, makes it quite clear on their job app that if you've been in a 'program' it no problem at all.
They expect you've been institutionalized by the time you leave High School.
Sick.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Da' Feds to collect DNA from every person they arrest - AP
...and in a country which imprisons more people per capita than anyone else in the world...
...that wouldn't be hard...
Or for that matter, just get arrested for peacefully protesting the illegal invasion of Iraq whilst on Federal government property.Squat on federal land...
There have to be thousands of things that people do every day that violate federal laws.
(Smoke pot on the local post office steps...)
Also consider
racism
as motivation:
“For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling,” the report said. “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.”
The racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women aged 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group. (Elaboration on this and more if you click the picture or link above)
Read: Feds to collect DNA from every person they arrest - AP via Y! News
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