AJLPP Update March 28, 2010 More than 12,000 March for Full Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, March 27 Los Angeles- “Queremos Trabajos, Los Migras Los Carajos!” This chant well summed up the feelings of more than 12,000 marched in downtown Los Angeles in the scorching heat of early spring in Los Angeles crying for real immigration reform and full rights for all immigrants last March 27, 2010. Inspired by the 600,000 turn out in Washington DC last March 21, the more than 12,000 rallyist spearheaded by the Full Rights For All Immigrants Coalition led by Hermanidad Mexicana and the Latino Movement-USA. The inspired and militant march started from the corner of Olympic and Broadway and was cheered by people from all walks of life who filled the sidewalks of old downtown. There were hundreds of American and other nationalities flags that flew held by thousands of demonstrators. From All Walks of Life With the chants of Amnestia ,Si, Racismo, No! fills the air, almost all the important groups in the LA community were represented in the march. The Asians led by the Korean Dancers banging their cymbals,gong and local drums, the Justice for Janitors with their drums, different Mexican regional groups, CHIRLA. Bringing up the rear was the strong and vibrant ANSWER-LA contingent with the Filipino-American AFFIRM and KmB banners. This mass action is an important follow-up action on a regional scale in the West Coast with Los Angeles as the epicenter of the immigrant rights movement in the United States. There were also smaller mass actions in San Francisco and Chicago. **********

The Claremont Institute's 30th Anniversary Dinner Featuring Dick Cheney at Biltmore Hotel in LA 3/27 - Tickets Still Available!!! The Claremont Institute is proud to welcome Vice President Dick Cheney as keynote speaker at a dinner in celebration of our 30th Anniversary. It will be held on Saturday evening, March 27, 2010, at the Millennium Biltmore in Los Angeles, California. Vice President Cheney is to be awarded the Claremont Institute's Statesmanship Award. For information and tickets https://www.claremont.org/events/eventid.116/step1.asp. For table sales please call (909) 621-6825 x125.

The California State Assembly is considering a resolution designating the first week of March every year as “Cuss Free Week” in California. OUTRAGEOUS!!! We’re in the midst of a back breaking state-wide budgetary crisis! How much time and tax payer money has been wasted on this bullshit? Should the state be encouraging people to restrict their right to free speech and expression? Should the state be making religious moral judgements about the use of "bad" words? No way, that’s totally offensive! Brave souls like Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and others worked hard to expand our Freedom of Speech and lift us from the repressive, puritanical 1950’s. Are we gonna let this attack on their good work go unanswered? Fuck that shit, man! South Pasadena is where this bullshit started and it’s where we must make our stand! Grab a sign, join the protest, and have a fucking blast as we… SCREW “Cuss Free Week”! The protest will take place at the corner of Fair Oaks Ave. and Mission St. in South Pasadena on Saturday, March 13th at 4:30pm. For additional info, visit; http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=336321272524 & http://www.facebook.com/GodlessLiberals This protest is organized by The Godless Liberal Social Society and the South Pasadena Neighbors for Peace and Justice.

Like wearing black? Is Emma Goldman your idea of a goddess? Do you feel inundated by statist jibber-jabber? Do you live in the San Fernando Valley? If this vaguely describes your disposition then check out SFVAF.bravehost.com and post a greeting on the forum. Let's connect and smash the state together; it ought to be fun.

By a WSWS reporting team, 6 March 2010 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/isse-m06.shtml and 7 minute video at: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/vide-m06.shtml (Photo at original wsws site) The events in San Diego were among the largest demonstrations in the state. Tens of thousands of students, parents and workers demonstrated throughout the country against school closings, tuition hikes, and teacher layoffs. (See, “Students and staff protest against education cuts in US”) Among the main speakers at the San Diego rallies were members of the International Students for Social Equality, the student organization of the Socialist Equality Party. The ISSE, which helped organize the demonstration at SDSU, called for a break with the Democratic Party and for a socialist movement to defend education. Despite their size, the San Diego rallies went largely unreported in the media. If their numbers were mentioned, they were generally reported as “hundreds.” This was part of what appeared to be a general attempt by the media to downplay the significance of the demonstrations. The first speaker at the SDSU rally was Priscilla Diaz, a straight-A high school student who was denied admittance to SDSU because of budget cuts. The university cut its total enrollment by 4,500 this year, and expects to cut another 11,000 over the next two years. The other speakers included representatives of the March 4 UCSD educational committee as well as various other student groups on campus. These groups, to the extent that they had any explicit political perspective, called on students to lobby their local representatives and the Democratic Party to carry out reforms. Several of the speakers called for repealing a rule that requires a two-thirds vote of the legislature to raise taxes. Trade unions in the state have championed this as a measure that would save education. Speaking on behalf of the ISSE were Andre Damon and Emanuele Saccarelli, a professor of political science at SDSU. Damon argued that pressuring the Democratic Party was completely unviable, saying, “We have a Democratic president, the California State Senate is Democratic, Congress is controlled by the Democrats, yet these cuts are still being implemented.” “We need a new political party, one that represents the entire working class; the people who have been the victims of budget cuts, school shutdowns, and unemployment,” Damon said. Saccarelli strongly condemned the Campus Faculty Association trade union, of which he said he was a “captive member,” for refusing to support the walkout. Once the rally had taken place, the union sought to take credit for it, and to persuade students to send protests to Democratic politicians. Saccarelli said that the unions only seek to divide and repress workers, citing the fact that the United Auto Workers called police on its own members at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California who “wanted to do something besides close the plant.” He further denounced the Democratic Party and Obama. Saccarelli noted that Obama had come out explicitly to endorse the mass firing of teachers in a Rhode Island school district, holding this up as a model of education reform. Obama claims that “students and teachers ought to be accountable,” Saccarelli said. “How come the billionaires and the hedge fund managers and the generals and the war criminals are never held accountable, but only the teachers?” The demonstration in downtown San Diego began with a rally at Balboa Park, which drew between 1,500 and 2,000 people. The group then marched downtown to the governor’s office, picking up even more members. The path of the rally went past high schools, and hundreds of high school students joined as classes were let out. Ricardo, a senior at San Diego State University and member of the International Students for Social Equality, was among those who addressed the rally at the governor’s office, calling for a socialist movement to unite all workers to defend public education. “It is not a matter of what must be cut,” he said. “Instead, it is a question of the necessary political strategy to oppose all cuts.” “We are always being told that there is no money for education and other basic services. This after the treasury has been emptied to bail out the banks and fund two criminal wars,” he said. For a video of these remarks, see, “ISSE members speak at San Diego rallies” at http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/vide-m06.shtml

The CSUN protest was huge and relevant, because it was only loosely planned and as a fraction broke off, it walked into the community, drawing supporters.)

I don't know this guy's name, sadly. He is a nursing student at CSULA. It was getting dark, I was not in an idea location for good video, and the sound quality isn't perfect, but it is so worth a listen. This guy was just phenomenal. If anyone knows his name, please post it. images from the student protest downtown LA. These images are small because it's taking too long to upload the larger ones. If anyone wants a copy of any of them, just email. 1st set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235615.php 2nd set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235635.php 3rd set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235655.php 4th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235731.php 5th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235751.php 6th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235771.php 7th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235793.php 8th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235814.php 9th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235834.php

images from the student protest downtown LA. These images are small because it's taking too long to upload the larger ones. If anyone wants a copy of any of them, just email. 1st set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235615.php 2nd set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235635.php 3rd set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235655.php 4th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235731.php 5th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235751.php 6th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235771.php 7th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235793.php 8th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235814.php

"Este fin de semana" / "This weekend" (impreciso)

ADAMS COUNTY (PA) - "checkpoints will be conducted in York and Adams counties this weekend " (http://www.ydr.com/ci_15518685)

VANDERBURGH COUNTY (IN) - "The exact location, date and time will not be released." (http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=12800965)

YORK COUNTY (PA) - "checkpoints will be conducted in York and Adams counties this weekend " (http://www.ydr.com/ci_15518685)



Friday / Viernes (16/jul)

BRISTOL (CT) - "DUI sobriety checkpoint from 7 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday on Route 6." (http://www.bristolpress.com/articles/2010/07/14/news/doc4c3e25e92b5b8239806674.txt)

CARSON (CA) - "sobriety and driver's license checkpoint from 7 Friday night to 3 a.m. Saturday at a location to be determined." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15524813)

CHINO (CA) - "DUI/Drivers License checkpoint from 8 p.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Saturday within the city." (http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_15515324)

FENWICK (DE) - "Checkpoint (DSP)" (http://www.wgmd.com/?p=6784)

FONTANA (CA) - "The checkpoint will be from 6 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at an undisclosed location in the city." (http://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/articles/2010/07/16/news/doc4c40a8d0ce3fd874916807.txt)

GARDENA (CA) - "checkpoint from 7:30 Friday night to 4 a.m. Saturday." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15524813)

HOWELL (NJ) - "11 p.m. Friday through 3 a.m. Saturday on Route 9 South" (http://www.app.com/article/20100715/NEWS/100715027/DWI-checkpoints-being-held-in-Howell-Sea-Girt-this-weekend)

INDEPENDENCE (MO) - "Independence plans DUI checkpoint, saturation patrol For this Friday night." (http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2010/07/independence-plans-dui-checkpoint-saturation-patrol.html)

LA VERNE (CA) - "driving under the influence and drivers license checkpoint from 6 p.m. Friday to midnight at an undisclosed location." (http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_15501431)

LAKE ELSINORE (CA) - "DUI / Driver's License checkpoint on Friday, July 16th" (http://www.riversidesheriff.org/press/lak10-0716.asp)

LEE COUNTY (FL) - "DUI sobriety checkpoint is scheduled for this weekend, beginning Friday, July 16, 2010" (http://www.pineisland-eagle.com/page/content.detail/id/510152/Sobriety-checkpoint-planned.html?nav=5051)

LORAIN (OH) - "State Highway Patrol will set up a DUI checkpoint in Lorain tonight....at East 28th Street and Fulton Road in South Lorain...starting about 9 p.m. and will run through 2 or 3 a.m." (http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/07/16/patrol-releases-dui-checkpoint-location/)

NEWARK (DE) - "Checkpoint (NcCo DUI Task Force)" (http://www.wgmd.com/?p=6784)

ONTARIO (CA) - "DUI/Drivers License checkpoint on from 6 p.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday throughout the city." (http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_15515324)

PASADENA (CA) - ""Zero Tolerance" DUI saturation program this Friday at an undisclosed location." (http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_15500970)

PETALUMA (CA) - "Checkpoints are planned July 16 and 23." (http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20100716/COMMUNITY/100719765?Title=DUI-checkpoints-planned-amid-local-protests)

REDLANDS (CA) - "Motorists headed west on Citrus Avenue between University and Church streets on Friday evening will encounter a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint starting at 10 p.m." (http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_D_nb15_checkpoint.f55e74.html)

REDONDO BEACH (CA) - "sobriety and driver's license checkpoint from 8 Friday night to 3 a.m. Saturday at an undisclosed location." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15524813)

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY (CA) - "California Highway Patrol officers will conduct a sobriety checkpoint from 9:30 p.m. Friday to 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the unincorporated area of San Bernardino County between Chino and Montclair." (http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_15515324)

SAN MIGUEL COUNTY (NM) - "sobriety checkpoint Friday night in San Miguel County." (http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/dwi-checkpoint-held-in-northeast-nm)

SEDGWICK COUNTY (KS) - "sobriety checkpoint Friday night in northwest Sedgwick County...between 11 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Saturday" (http://www.kansas.com/2010/07/15/1405338/dui-checkpoint-in-northwest-sedgwick.html)

TEMECULA (CA) - "The checkpoint is set to begin at 9 p.m. and continue through 3 a.m. Saturday" (http://www.swrnn.com/southwest-riverside/2010-07-12/news/duicheckpoint-scheduled-friday-in-temecula)

WAYNE COUNTY (IN) - "sobriety checkpoint tonight in an effort to increase seat belt usage and detect drunken drivers" (http://www.pal-item.com/article/20100716/NEWS01/7160304)



Saturday / Sábado (17/jul)

CHARLESTON (WV) - "The checkpoint will take place from 8 p.m. Saturday to about 2 a.m. Sunday in the 1100 block of Central Avenue." (http://www.dailymail.com/policebrfs/201007150908)

DOVER (DE) - "Checkpoint (DSP Troop 3)" (http://www.wgmd.com/?p=6784)

ELK GROVE (CA) - "drunk driving checkpoint will be stopping motorists Saturday night...from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m." (http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/14/1252142/sacto-9-1-1-location-for-saturday.html)

ELKHART COUNTY (IN) - "DUI checkpoint this weekend...will begin the checkpoint about 10 p.m. Saturday in Elkhart." (http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100716/News01/100719667/1130)

HAGERSTOWN (MD) - "The checkpoint will be conducted from 9 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday [at an undisclosed location]" (http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=249120&format=html)

HAWTHORNE (CA) - "checkpoint from 8 p.m. Saturday to 4 a.m. Sunday at Rosecrans and Isis avenues." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15524813)

LAKE COUNTY (CA) - "sobriety checkpoint this Saturday, July 17 [from 6 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday.]" (http://lakeconews.com/content/view/14946/919/) (http://www.record-bee.com/ci_15529061)

LAUREL (DE) - "Checkpoint (Laurel PD)" (http://www.wgmd.com/?p=6784)

LEHI (UT) - "sobriety checkpoint on state Route 68 near 2100 N. Redwood Road in Lehi Saturday night. Police will be checking cars and drivers starting at 9 p.m. Saturday and could continue until 2 a.m. Sunday." (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700048501/Lehi-police-to-conduct-sobriety-checkpoint-Saturday.html)

LICKING COUNTY (OH) - "Ohio State Highway Patrol will intercept drunken or impaired drivers in Licking County Saturday evening." (http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20100716/UPDATES01/100716015/1002/NEWS01)

LOMPOC (CA) - "DUI and license checkpoint is scheduled for Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m. at a location somewhere within the city limits." (http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/article_92274118-909e-11df-8f5a-001cc4c03286.html)

PERRIS (CA) - "DUI / Driver's License checkpoint on Saturday July 17, 2010, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m." (http://www.riversidesheriff.org/press/per10-0717.asp)

POWAY (CA) - "between the hours of 7:00 PM and 2:30 AM, deputies from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department Poway Station will be conducting a DUI sobriety and driver safety checkpoint in the 14300 block of Poway Road." (http://apps.sdsheriff.net/press/Default.aspx?FileLink=e9188a2b-bb8b-4529-badc-fab730fefa51)

SEA GIRT (NJ) - "11 p.m. Saturday through 3 a.m. Sunday on Route 71 South." (http://www.app.com/article/20100715/NEWS/100715027/DWI-checkpoints-being-held-in-Howell-Sea-Girt-this-weekend)



Next week / El fin de semana entrante

PALM SPRINGS (CA) - "DUI checkpoint July 23" (http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100716/NEWS01/100716020/Palm-Springs-police-to-conduct-DUI-check-next-week)

PETALUMA (CA) - "Petaluma Police Department plans to implement DUI/driver's license checkpoints on July 23 " (http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20100716/COMMUNITY/100719765?Title=DUI-checkpoints-planned-amid-local-protests)

TRACY (CA) - "sobriety and driver's license checkpoint July 24 at an undisclosed location in Tracy...from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m." (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15526387)



Upcoming / Próximamente

SANTA ROSA (CA) - "Santa Rosa's next effort will be Labor Day weekend." (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15497957)

According to prosecutors, the government's cooperating witness, Juan Bonilla, a k a Zombie, gave statements to FBI and LAPD investigators in El Salvador implicating Alex Sanchez in the May 2006 shooting of Walter Lacinos, a k a Cameron, in that gang-ridden country. The prosecution claims that Bonilla/Zombie participated in an incriminating wiretapped phone call with Sanchez and others one week before the shooting. The Sanchez defense has strongly argued that the government has the "wrong Zombie," that it was another Juan Bonilla who took part in the phone call. The case of the mistaken Zombie aside, now the Salvadoran papers El Mundo and El Diario de Hoy are reporting that the real Zombie is not only a fugitive but has lied to Salvadoran prosecutors about the killings in 2006. " 'Zombie' is on the loose," El Mundo reported on May 11. The detailed article describes how Zombie offered himself as a witness to the police in the murder of Cameron and others, including a well-known gang intervention worker known as Smoky, who was written up sympathetically by National Public Radio reporter Mandolit del Barco. Smoky, a former MS leader turned peacemaker, law student and father, was killed May 13, 2006. Cameron himself may have been implicated in the killing of Smoky, which would make Cameron's own death two days later an act of retaliation. According to the El Mundo account, Zombie told prosecutors that Cameron traveled from Los Angeles to El Salvador to assassinate Smoky. "The latter had come out of anonymity and had achieved fame after appearing in a documentary about gangs, and he belong to an organization to rehabilitate mara [gang] members." Zombie was finally arrested in 2006 after committing some twenty home robberies. In June 2008, he received special privileges for cooperating with Salvadoran and US authorities. After testifying against MS in exchange for leniency, Zombie escaped in April 2009 when prosecutors became suspicious of his tales. He disguised himself as a priest, a postal worker and even a prosecutor, the better to gain entry to the homes of the wealthy and later rob them. He also is blamed for several kidnappings, rapes and sexual batteries. If the Salvadoran media accounts are accurate, Zombie has been a fugitive since before the June 2009 indictment of Alex Sanchez. Government prosecutors have never provided the court with the fact that their witness is missing. Now, with Zombie's credibility shattered, it is not clear if the prosecution wants to find him. Where does this leave the prosecution? They could recognize their mistake and drop the case against Sanchez. But with so much invested in their claim that Sanchez is a "shot caller" leading a "double life," a responsible retreat from their flawed case is unlikely. But going forward with the prosecution contains seeds of embarrassment for the government as well. First, they will have to prosecute Sanchez with their central witness a discredited fugitive, and with strong evidence that the Zombie on the wiretaps is not the Zombie the government claims. Second, the other accusation against Sanchez is strikingly similar in its emptiness. He is charged in a gang racketeering conspiracy that took place over a fourteen-year period beginning when he left the gang in the '90s and concluding in May of last year. Though the government indictment alleges over 150 specific overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy against twenty-four defendants, the majority for selling drugs to government informants, there are no overt acts attributed to Sanchez beyond the disputed wiretaps. This conspiracy case, then, is about RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a 1970 law that makes prosecution possible on the basis of guilt-by-association. The acronym RICO derives from Edward G. Robinson's gangster hero, Little Caesar, in the 1930 movie of the same name. In the most famous scene, Robinson goes down after shouting, "Caesar Enrico Bandello, this is Rico speaking. Rico! R-I-C-O! Little Caesar, that's who! Listen, you crummy flat-footed copper, I'll show you whether I've lost my nerve and my brains!" Released during the 1950s McCarthy period after decades of suppression, the film became a favorite of prosecutors and gang-bangers alike. The RICO law makes it a crime to "associate" with any "enterprise" through a "pattern" of racketeering activity. The assumption is that street gangs like MS are identical to vertically organized crime structures. There is a presumed board of directors, known as "shot callers," who are an organized conspiracy responsible for every specific crime committed anywhere by any of the gang's individual members. Alex Sanchez left the gang life behind at approximately the time that the present investigation began fifteen years ago. Subsequently, he founded Homies Unidos in Los Angeles, a gang intervention agency that works with young people, including gang members, to prevent violence and open up alternative opportunities. As an intervention worker, his task involves numerous conversations and phone calls with members of street gangs. In 1999, he helped expose the LAPD's Rampart scandal in which hundreds of young people were subjected to false charges, beaten, jailed and deported, violations that led to federal intervention. Since becoming an intervention worker, Sanchez also has testified as an expert witness in at least eleven federal and state gang conspiracy cases, in which six defendants were found not guilty. One of the government experts he has testified against is LAPD officer Frank Flores, a former Rampart beat detective who, nearly fifteen years later, is the prosecutor's expert witness against Sanchez in court today. It is fair to say that Sanchez poses a challenge to the prosecution mentality driving the war on gangs. It is helpful to Sanchez that the prosecution lacks any specific evidence against him, a fact which led to his release on bail six months ago. But under RICO law, often referred to as an Alice in Wonderland statue by defense attorneys, that is beside the point. Prosecutors will try to prove that Sanchez, against all present evidence, is a secret shot caller leading a double life. As their case crumbles, they can be expected to compile a new one. For the Full Alex Sánchez series go to The Nation: http://www.thenation.com

Police Brutality in America - by Stephen Lendman Across America, daily incidents occur, one of many the cold-blooded January 1, 2009 murder of Oscar Grant - unarmed, offering no resistance, thrust face-down on the ground, shot in the back, and killed, videotaped on at least four cameras for irrefutable proof. USA Today said five bystanders taped it. His killer: Oakland, CA transit officer, Johannes Mehserle, tried for the killing, the jury told to consider four possible verdicts - innocent, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter, jurors deciding the latter. The Legal Dictionary defines it as "The act of unlawfully killing another human being unintentionally," the absence of intent distinguishing it from voluntary manslaughter. Many states don't define it or do it vaguely. Wallin & Klarich Violent Crime Attorneys say in California it carries a two - four year sentence. However, since a gun was used, Judge Robert Perry can add three to 10 additional years. Because minority victims seldom get justice, especially against police, Mehserle may serve minimal time, then be paroled quietly when the current furor subsides. After the verdict, it erupted on Oakland streets, hundreds turning out to protest, Bay Area indymedia.org saying: "The actions of the Police in Oakland tonight (including dozens of arrests) show their disrespect for justice in General. Their heavy handed violence towards protestors just reinforces their total disconnect with the people of Oakland." It's as true everywhere across America, police acting like Gestapo, usually unaccountably. Grant's family will appeal the verdict and is suing the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) for $25 million, his mother Wanda Johnson saying "My son was murdered (and) the law has not held the officer accountable." It rarely does for Black, Latino, or other minorities, no matter the injustice, civil rights lawyer John Burris, representing Grant's family in the civil suit, saying: "The system is rarely fair when a police officer shoots an African-American male." Police brutality against them and other minorites is systemic, including beatings, torture, and cold-blooded murder, usually with impunity, justice nearly always denied. While far from certain, the Obama administration may charge Mehserle with civil rights or hate crime violations, DOJ spokesman Alejandro Miyar saying: "The Justice Department has been closely monitoring the state's investigation and prosecution. The Civil Rights Division, the US Attorney's Office, and the FBI have an open investigation into the fatal shooting and, at the conclusion of the state prosecution, will conduct an independent review of the facts and circumstances to determine whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution." Systemic Police Brutality An earlier Jones Report.com text and video account headlined, "Epidemic of Police Brutality Sweeps America," showing footage of police repeatedly tasering a student with 50,000 volts of electricity for questioning the 2004 election results at a campus meeting. Other videotaped incidents showed: -- a man victimized by police violence; -- a former sheriff's deputy acquitted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting an unarmed man; -- police repeatedly beating an old man on the head, "for the crime of intoxication;" -- officers violently using assault rifles, tear gas, dogs, and at least one helicopter in an alleged narcotics sweep; -- a woman tasered to death by police; and -- a man in shock, bleeding and burned over much of his body, ordered to lie on the pavement, then tasered and shot to death while he sat dazed, the Report highlighting systemic police violence "repeated almost every day in (America), the police (getting) away with murder," beatings, and other lawless acts - poor Blacks, Latinos, and Muslims for their faith and ethnicity their usual victims. Amnesty International (AI) on American Police Brutality On its web site, AI says "Police brutality and use of excessive force has been one of the central themes of (AI's) campaign on human rights violations in the USA," launched in October 1998. In its "United States of America: Rights for All Index," it documented systematic patterns of abuse across America, including "police beatings, unjustified shootings and the use of dangerous restraint techniques to subdue suspects." Yet little is done to monitor or constrain it, evidence showing that "racial and ethnic minorities were disproportionately" harmed by harassment, verbal and physical abuse, false arrests, and in the case of West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, shot at 41 times by four New York policemen, struck 19 times and killed while he stood in the vestibule of his apartment building, unarmed and nonviolent, victimized by police brutality. Nationwide, driving while black has been criminalized, racial profiling used for traffic stops and searches for suspected drugs or other reasons, the practice especially common in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Texas. AI cited numerous incidents, including beatings and "questionable" shootings, usually found to be unjustified, yet cops most often absolved. Although most US police departments stipulate that officers should only use deadly force when their lives, or others, are endangered, dozens of cases show they do it indiscriminately, at most being "mildly disciplined" even if guilty of serious misconduct. "Police shooting(s) resulting in death or injury are routinely reviewed (internally or) by local prosecutors....to see whether criminal laws (were) violated. However, few officers are criminally charged and little public information is given out if a case does not go to trial." As a result, systemic abuse stays hidden, police brutality allowed to persist with impunity. Despite Congress passing the 1994 Police Accountability Act, incorporated into the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act to require the Attorney General to compile national data on excessive police force, Congress has consistently failed to fund it. Further, the legislation doesn't require local police agencies to keep records or submit data to the Justice Department. Nor does it criminalize police violence and excessive force as human rights violations. ACLU Report on Racial and Ethnic Profiling In August 2009, the report titled, "The Persistence of Racial Profiling in the United States" quoted Rep. John Conyers (D. MI) saying "Since (9/11), our nation has engaged in a policy of institutionalized racial and ethnic profiling," although, as an African-American, he knows the problem goes back generations, most recently in the "war on terrorism" against Blacks, Latinos, and Muslims for their faith, ethnicity, activism, prominence, and at times charity, a topic this writer addresses often - arrests, some violently, bogus charges, prosecutions, and imprisonments often compounding the injustice. Post-9/11 under Bush and Obama, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have engaged in virulent racial/ethnic profiling, what the ACLU calls "a widespread and pervasive problem throughout the United States, impacting the lives of millions of people in African American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, and Arab communities." Evidence shows that racial minorities are systematically victimized, without cause, in public, when driving, at work, at home, in places of worship, and traveling, often violently. A "major impediment to (prohibiting it) remains the continued unwillingness or inability of the US government to pass federal legislation (banning the practice) with binding effect on federal, state or local law enforcement." Nor do authorities comply with the provisions of the 1994 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) that obligates all levels of government. In addition, the Justice Department's 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies designed to ban federal officers from engaging in racial profiling is, in fact, flawed and does little to end it, because it doesn't cover "profiling based on religion, religious appearance, or national origin." Nor does it apply to state and local law enforcement where police brutality is systemic. In addition, it specifies no enforcement mechanisms or punishments for violators, and contains a "blanket exception for national security and border integrity cases," besides being advisory and not legally binding. As a result, it actually promotes profiling and abuse, including false arrests, beatings and killings. It's not surprising how minorities have been systematically mistreated by federal, state and local authorities, or that congressional legislation introduced to stop it never passed. On December 13, 2007, the House and Senate introduced their versions of the End Racial Profiling Act (HR 4611 and S. 2481). Both bills were referred to committee and never enacted - making it extremely hard to nearly impossible for victims to successfully challenge abuses against them. As a candidate, Obama promised a "Blueprint for Change" to ban racial profiling and related mistreatment, criminalizing them, but so far, no measures have been introduced or passed, showing another promise made, another broken, a systematic pattern under his leadership, across the board against the constituencies that elected him. Hopefully they'll remember next election and choose another way, a third way, both parties equally corrupted in deference to big money and systemic police brutality that serves it. National Police Misconduct Statistics The Injustice Everywhere.com (IE) web site compiles them, publishing them in regular reports, some for individual cities, including daily accounts. One on July 10 covers King County, WA deputy Paul Schene, captured on videotape assaulting a 15-year old girl in jail. He was tried twice, hung juries resulting each time. On July 9, the County Prosecutor's Office dropped the charges, and won't pursue a third trial. As a result, the sheriff's department may rehire Schene, though he still faces possible disciplinary action. It's currently in arbitration, IE saying decisions nearly always favor officers, in which case he'll likely be reinstated to abuse other detainees, off camera to avoid being charged. In early 2010, IE published an April - mid-December 2009 (8.5 months) Police Misconduct Report, from figures compiled in its National Police Misconduct Statistics Reporting Project (NPMSRP), begun earlier in March 2009, analyzing data: "by utilizing news media reports of police misconduct to generate statistical information (to) approximate how prevalent (it) may be in the United States." Police departments don't usually provide them, nor do courts, except for successful prosecutions, omitting confidential settlements and cases resulting in disciplinary action only, not trials. Media reports, though imperfect, are more complete because laws limit or filter information released. As a result, IE's data "should be considered as a low-end estimate of the current rate of police misconduct," as well as in individual cities covered. Statistics compiled follow the same DOJ/FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) methodology, recording only the most serious allegation (not conviction) when multiple ones are associated with a particular incident. The findings were as follows: -- 3,445 police misconduct reports; -- 4,012 officers charged; -- 261 law enforcement officials (police chiefs or sheriffs) cited; -- 4,778 alleged victims; -- 258 fatalities reported; -- an average of 15.05 daily incidents or one every 96 minutes; -- nearly $200 million in related civil litigation expense, excluding legal fees and court costs; -- 980.64 per 100,000 officers charged; -- one of every 266 officers accused of a violent crime; -- one of every 1,875 charged with homocide; -- one of every 947 accused of sexual assault; -- 33% of police officers charged were convicted, not necessarily justly for the offense committed; -- 64% of officers convicted were imprisoned, not necessarily as long as justified; -- those sentenced served an average 14 months, far less than citizens for the same crime; -- misconduct by category included 18.1% for non-firearm related excessive force; 11.9% for sexual misconduct; and 8.9% for fraud or theft; -- analyzing reports by last reported status showed 45.9% affected officers adversely, including 14% internally disciplined and 31.9% criminally charged; of the latter, 32.5% were convicted "for a 10.4% total criminal conviction rate for alleged misconduct incidents; and -- 27% resulted in civil lawsuits, 34.3% favoring victims. In addition, data were compiled for states, cities and counties, excluding unavailable federal statistics as well as local omissions, especially in some states. Various offenses included: -- accountability: evidence of coverups, lax discipline, and other failures to adhere to official policies or processes; -- animal cruelty, harming them by unnecessary shooting, inappropriate KP unit training, or other mistreatment; -- assault: "unwarranted violence" off-duty, excluding murder; -- auto incidents involving recklessness, negligence, and other violations of official policies; -- brutality, involving excessive physical force on-duty, excluding firearms or tasers; -- civil rights, including unconstitutional civil liberties violations such as lawless peaceful protest disruptions; -- sexual misconduct, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, wrongfully eliciting sex, harassment, coercion, prostitution, sex on duty, incest, and molestation; -- theft or fraud, including robbery, shoplifting, extortion or bribery; -- shooting: gun-related incidents both on and off-duty, including self-harm; -- taser: excessive force, including usage not according to guidelines, resulting in excessive injury or death; also, improper taser use may be recorded as "brutality;" -- color of law, including incidents involving misuse of authority such as bribery, soliciting favors, extortion by threat of arrest, or using badges to avoid arrest; -- perjury, including false testimony, dishonesty during investigations, and falsifying charging papers or warrants; and -- raids, including misconduct during warranted or warrantless operations or searches, wrong address raids, mistaken ones, use of no-knock ones when warrants require notification, or mistreatment during executions. Misconduct status stages go from allegations to investigations, lawsuits, charges, trials, judgments, disciplinary measures, terminations, convictions, and sentences. IE compiles data regularly, prepares daily and quarterly reports, and henceforth an annual one each January the following year. It explains that its statistics: "should only be used (as) a very basic and general view of the extent of police misconduct. It is by no means an accurate gauge that truly represents the exact extent (of its extensiveness) since it relies on the information voluntarily gathered and/or released to the media, not (first-hand) by independent monitors who investigate complaints.....because no such agency exists for any law enforcement agency...." Detailed quarterly and annual reports are produced, not monthly ones considered a less accurate "depiction of the overall extent of police misconduct...." Daily reports cover a sampling of individual incidents. Overall, IE provides a valuable reading of systemic police misconduct, though capturing only a snapshot of the full problem - widespread, abusive, violent, often with impunity, and when officers are held accountable, imposed discipline is usually mild, prison sentences rare and short-term, victims cheated by a criminally unjust system, favoring power over people, no matter the offense. Final Comments In December 2007, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination published a report titled, "In the Shadows of the War on Terror: Persistent Police Brutality and Abuse of People of Color in the United States," saying: "Since this Committee's 2001 review of the US, during which it expressed concern regarding incidents of police brutality and deaths in custody at the hands of US law enforcement officers, there have been dramatic increases in law enforcement powers in the name of waging the "war on terror (resulting in) the use of excessive force against people of color....(It's not only continued post-9/11), but has worsened in both practice and severity" - a NAACP representative saying it's "the worst I've seen in 50 years." On April 4, 2007, Ryan Gallagher, writing for Medill Reports, produced by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, headlined, "Study: Police abuse goes unpunished," saying: From 2002 - 2004, over "10,000 complaints of police abuse were filed with Chicago police....but only 19 resulted in meaningful disciplinary action, a new study asserts." According to Gerald Frazier, president of Citizens Alert, it reflects "not only the appearance of influence and cover-up," but clear evidence that city residents are being abused, not protected, despite the department's official motto being "We Serve and Protect." Most disturbing is that the Chicago pattern reflects what's happening across America, people of color like Oscar Grant systematically abused, in his case murdered in cold blood, what no criminal or civil actions can undo. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

These images are small because it's taking too long to upload the larger ones. If anyone wants a copy of any of them, just email. 1st set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235615.php 2nd set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235635.php 3rd set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235655.php 4th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235731.php 5th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235751.php 6th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235771.php 7th set: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235793.php

Video available here: http://video.indymedia.org/en/2010/03/955.shtml

Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant Statement regarding former BART officer Johannes Mehserle's "Involuntary Manslaughter" conviction for the brutal shooting of Oscar Grant. The Coalition believes that Johannes Mehserle (Oscar's killer) should have received a conviction for murder--not for manslaughter. STATEMENT ------------------------ The farce verdict of involuntary manslaughter is a perversion of justice that seeks to absolve Mehserle of all but the most minimal responsibility for murdering Oscar Grant, as if Mehserle ran a light and hit someone rather than pulling his gun and shooting an unarmed man in the back. We reject the continued official cover-up of the murder of Oscar Grant with a jury exclusive of African Americans, yet including several jurors with police as immediate family, hundreds of miles from the scene of the crime, by a judge notorious for covering police crimes and with slanted rules of evidence. We remind everyone of the California NAACP request that we should "trust the justice system". The NAACP has contorted itself into accomplice in the cover-up of murder and denial of rights. Mehserle’s public murder of Oscar Grant is the declaration of open hostility against the people. As it was the people who, through their organized actions, forced Mehserle’s arrest, it will be the people who end the systematic epidemic of police brutality. At the moment we demand of the Obama/Holder Justice Department to file long-overdue Federal Charges of Civil Rights Violations against all involved in the Oscar Grant murder and cover-up. We demand of the United Nations investigation of Human Rights Violations in breach of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. We demand of the people to organize and train themselves, to secure every position, resource, and weapon available for long-term struggle to end police brutality.

Involuntary manslaughter calls for a 2 to 4 year sentence, and "with a gun" seems to add 1, 3, 4, or 10 years, but reports of sentencing possibilities still vary widely, as attention turns to the upcoming August 7th sentencing hearing in Los Angeles. Read more at Digital Journal, http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/294430.

All came to express their outrage at the verdict and to stand in solidarity with the Grant family and the community of Oakland.

Speakers from the October 22 Coalition spoke as well as members of theBlack Riders Liberation Party

"This weekend" / "Este fin de semana" (impreciso)

CALCASIEU PARISH (Louisiana) - "seat belt checkpoint this weekend at an undisclosed location in the parish." (http://www.sulphurdailynews.com/news/x41622225/CPSO-to-conduct-seat-belt-checkpoint-this-weekend)

LEE COUNTY (FL) - "driver's license checkpoint is scheduled this week at an undisclosed location in Lee County." (http://www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com/page/content.detail/id/517719.html)

PENNSYLVANIA - "Pennsylvania State Police Troop D, Kittanning, will conduct a sobriety checkpoint at a predetermined location this coming weekend." (http://www.kittanningpaper.com/2010/07/09/state-police-to-hold-sobriety-checkpoint/8644)



Friday / Viernes (9/jul)

CALAVERAS COUNTY (CA) - "On Friday July 9, 2010, the California Highway Patrol San Andreas office will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint." (http://thepinetree.net/index.php?module=announce&ANN_user_op=view&ANN_id=18354)

CITRUS HEIGHTS (CA) - "DUI and driver's license checkpoint at Madison Ave. and San Juan" (http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/06/1241289/citrus-heights-schedules-dui-checkpoint.html)

ESCAMBIA COUNTY (FL) - "safety checkpoint from 10 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday on U.S. 29 near Broad Street in Escambia County." (http://www.pnj.com/article/20100708/NEWS01/7080309)

GEORGETOWN (DE) - "Friday July 9th – Newport- checkpoint" (http://www.sussexcountian.com/news/police_and_fire/x41625162/DUI-checkpoints-planned-for-this-weekend)

HIGHLAND (CA) - "DUI/driver license checkpoint tonight (July 9) on Victoria Avenue just south of Highland Avenue from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m." (http://www.highlandnews.net/articles/2010/07/08/news/this_weeks_news/doc4c365e9b97728420722322.txt)

LAWNDALE (CA) - "driving under the influence and driver's license checkpoint from 6 tonight to 2 a.m. Saturday at a location to be determined." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15469593)

LOS ANGELES - "sobriety and driver's license checkpoint from 8 tonight to 3 a.m. Saturday on Sunset Boulevard at Sutherland Street." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15469593)

NEWPORT (DE) - "Friday July 9th – Georgetown - checkpoint" (http://www.sussexcountian.com/news/police_and_fire/x41625162/DUI-checkpoints-planned-for-this-weekend)

SAN BERNARDINO (CA) - "The roadblock is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday until 2 a.m. Saturday near Fifth Street and Medical Center Drive." (http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_nb07_dui.12b6285.html)

SANTA MARIA (CA) - "The Santa Maria Police Department will be conducting a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint tonight from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m." (http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/article_0ff0b796-8af0-11df-bb61-001cc4c03286.html)

SYRACUSE (IN) - "onduct a sobriety checkpoint Friday from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. at the Pamida store, 1101 Indiana Ave. (Indiana 13) in Syracuse." (http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100708/LOCAL07/100709696)

WARREN COUNTY (OH) - "drunk driving checkpoint will be held Friday, July 9, in Warren County. The location of the checkpoint will be announced Friday morning." (http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/drunk-driving-checkpoint-planned-in-warren-county-802200.html)



Sábado / Saturday (10/jul)

GATLINBURG (TN) - "Rangers at 4 p.m. will set up a checkpoint on Highway 73 near the Townsend Wye in Blount County, she said." (http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jul/08/national-park-rangers-plan-dui-checkpoints-smokies/)

REHOBOTH (DE) - "Rehoboth – checkpoint" (http://www.sussexcountian.com/news/police_and_fire/x41625162/DUI-checkpoints-planned-for-this-weekend)

RIDGECREST (CA) - "driving-under-the-influence and drivers-licence checkpoint Saturday, July 10 from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. somewhere in the city." (http://www.ridgecrestca.com/newsnow/x1143349236/Police-to-conduct-checkpoint-Saturday)

Terry Anderson, a Black Conservative talk-show host who was best known for his vitriolic attacks on Hispanics under the guise of fighting illegal immigration, died Thursday of Cancer. Anderson used his radio show on KRLA in Los Angeles to rail against not only illegal immigrants, but Hispanics in particular, encouraging in vain for African Americans to oppose the Hispanic community and its culture. A lifelong resident of South Central Los Angeles (sometimes calling himself a “prisoner” of South Central), Anderson said his activism began in 1986 after being concerned about the makeup of his mostly black neighborhood becoming more and more Hispanic. “I looked around the neighborhood, and I saw the denseness,” he said. “ten, twenty people living in a two-bedroom house. Four or five cars at each house. Corn growing in the front yard. Chickens, goats in yards. This is all the stuff we never had when I was growing up there back in the fifties and sixties, and all of a sudden we had it, and I knew something was wrong.” Anderson began by regularly calling the George Putnam radio show Those calls eventually led to his KRLA radio program. Anderson said when he started, he was particularly disturbed about then-President Ronald Reagan’s Immigration Control and Reform Act, and became an activist behind the notion that Hispanics were taking jobs from African Americans. According to an interview on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) website however, African Americans have never been all that receptive to his work. “See, black folks don't have no focus,” he said. We hold a town hall meeting about illegal immigration, and they want to bring up a thousand subjects. They want to talk about education; they want to talk about the schools; they want to talk about parking; they want to talk about police brutality. And then you got that old minority bullshit about, "We minorities, they minorities, so we got to all stick together." Then you get, "The white man hard on them just like he hard on us," and, see, this is the kind of stuff I just don't understand. Right now, the white man that they are talking about is Mexicans! It used to be the Klan, now it's the Klan with a tan.” Anderson’s activism has put him, ironically enough, primarily in the company of those associated with white supremacists who often used him to deflect charges of racism. He has worked with racist activists like Barbara Coe and Glenn Spencer, has spoken at conferences put on by the racist Social Contract Press and his last public appearance was speaking at the June 5 rally in Phoenix that saw controversy because of organizer Dan Smeriglio’s ties to neo-Nazis in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In an interview on the Southern Poverty Law Center website. In the SPLC interview, he said that although he considered his supporters at the white supremacist website Stormfront “a bunch of redneck, racist motherfuckers”, he had no qualms about working with white supremacists or those that are associated with them. “I have black people tell me, ‘Man, you saying the same thing the KKK is saying,’” he said. “Well, then we're both right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we happen to agree on this. And I think, now a lot of these white supremacist organizations are softening themselves toward us, because now they got a new enemy that's overwhelming them.” Indeed, the tributes have come decidedly from those who have focused on how black he was. Roy Beck of Numbers USA called him an “outspoken champion of the cause of Black Americans against the unfair competition of immigration”, while Brenda Walker at VDARE said, “When many black Americans were hunkering down, scared to voice misgivings about the alien invasion, Terry was not afraid. Saving the country was always more important to him than obeying PC rules to ‘say no evil’ about minorities.” Glenn Spencer was even more glowing: “He was a working-class black who refused to remain silent, as his community was being ripped apart. Leftists feared him as they do all who speak the truth about illegal immigration, but even more so because he was black.” No other details about Anderson’s age or family have been immediately available.

LA-IMC reporter outside the court house reports an angry response from the crowd gathered there. About 35 protesters still there at this time, others headed to a rally at Leimert Park scheduled for 5:00 pm. Crowd outside expressed outrage at what they felt was too light a verdict. Protesters there do not believe that Mehserle’s actions were involuntary.